The hill was perhaps held in special regard by the Vikings, who settled in Cleveland during the early medieval period and gave the area many of its place names. They gave Roseberry Topping its present name; first attested in 1119 as "Othenesberg", its second element is accepted to derive from Old Norse "bjarg" (rock); the first element must be an Old Norse personal name, Authunn or Óthinn, giving 'Authunn's/Óthinn's rock'. If the latter, Roseberry Topping is one of only a handful of known pagan names in England, being named after the Norse god Odin and paralleled by the Old English name "Wodnesberg", found for example in Woodnesborough. The name changed successively to Othensberg, Ohenseberg, Ounsberry and Ouesberry before finally settling on Roseberry. "Topping" is a Yorkshire dialectal derivation of Old English "topp", top (of a hill). The naming of the hill may thus fit a well-established pattern in Continental Europe of hills and mountains being named after Odin or the Germanic equivalent, Wodan. Aelfric of Eynsham, writing in the 10th century, recorded how "the heathens made him into a celebrated god and made offerings to him at crossroads and brought oblations to high hills for him. This god was honoured among all heathens and he is called ... Othon in Danish."