Wales shares its name with the country of Wales, and the derivation may well be the same if it bears the same Anglo Saxon (and Germanic) root meaning "foreigner(s)". The suggestion, therefore, is that there was a continued Celtic presence here following the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons at the turn of the 6th century. An alternative explanation suggests that the settlement's name may be derived from the word "Waelas", meaning "field of battle". The earliest reference to Wales is in 1002, when Wulfric Spot, a Saxon thegn, is recorded as owning "Walesho".