On Northshield
I was in the last couple months corrected about the etymology of Northshield by two people. (Now if only I would have found this out earlier...)
The origin of the -shield part of Northshield is the geologic feature of North America called the Canadian or Precambrian Shield. As it was a feature that tied in all of the area that would become Northshield (and then some), it was suggested and was not hated most of all the suggestions. So that's how we got our name. It was found out later that there was a precedence in England for the -shields as a contraction for 'shieling' as a place name. In England there is a place named South Shields. This is a contraction of South Shielings. If the plural is attested, obviously you can get a singular; hence North-shield. However, this is not the true etymology of the name, but a cool side-note.
So, from the true etymology, since the English 'shield' from the Precambrian Shield is a translation of the cognate of German Schild 'shield' and I doubt the Norse would have a term for this, the proper translation for Northshield in Norse should be Norðskjöldr 'north-shield' (skjöldr being the cognate for both 'shield' and 'schild') and not, as originally posited, Norðsætr 'north-shieling'.
There is also a tradition in Northshield to go to Beowulf. In there the Danes are called Scyldinga(s) (sorry, not sure how the plurals work in Anglo-Saxon and there are several forms of this word in my transliteration of the poem), after the mythical founding father Scyld Scelding. He's also mentioned in Snorri's Edda as the son of Odin, Skjöldr (what do you know, the word for 'shield') and the Danes are thus called the Skjöldungar. Anyways, there is a bardic tradtion to take Scyldinga(s) and applied to to Northshielders (hm, I wonder why). This only adds to the reasons to translate Northshield into Norse as Norðskjöldr.
So, that's my correction and my new translation. Norðskjöldr for Northshield and Skjöldungar for Northshielders.
Oh, and just because it's semi-related, the Swedes in Beowulf are likewise named after their mythic founder Ing and the royal dynasty in Sweden is called the Ynglingas (ON Ynglingar). Ellis-Davidson in her book God and Myths of Northern Europe makes some interesting connections between Ing and Freyr, and Scyld and Ull. Her book has some neat ideas -- I wouldn't say all her arguments are all founded, but it's definitely an interesting read.
The origin of the -shield part of Northshield is the geologic feature of North America called the Canadian or Precambrian Shield. As it was a feature that tied in all of the area that would become Northshield (and then some), it was suggested and was not hated most of all the suggestions. So that's how we got our name. It was found out later that there was a precedence in England for the -shields as a contraction for 'shieling' as a place name. In England there is a place named South Shields. This is a contraction of South Shielings. If the plural is attested, obviously you can get a singular; hence North-shield. However, this is not the true etymology of the name, but a cool side-note.
So, from the true etymology, since the English 'shield' from the Precambrian Shield is a translation of the cognate of German Schild 'shield' and I doubt the Norse would have a term for this, the proper translation for Northshield in Norse should be Norðskjöldr 'north-shield' (skjöldr being the cognate for both 'shield' and 'schild') and not, as originally posited, Norðsætr 'north-shieling'.
There is also a tradition in Northshield to go to Beowulf. In there the Danes are called Scyldinga(s) (sorry, not sure how the plurals work in Anglo-Saxon and there are several forms of this word in my transliteration of the poem), after the mythical founding father Scyld Scelding. He's also mentioned in Snorri's Edda as the son of Odin, Skjöldr (what do you know, the word for 'shield') and the Danes are thus called the Skjöldungar. Anyways, there is a bardic tradtion to take Scyldinga(s) and applied to to Northshielders (hm, I wonder why). This only adds to the reasons to translate Northshield into Norse as Norðskjöldr.
So, that's my correction and my new translation. Norðskjöldr for Northshield and Skjöldungar for Northshielders.
Oh, and just because it's semi-related, the Swedes in Beowulf are likewise named after their mythic founder Ing and the royal dynasty in Sweden is called the Ynglingas (ON Ynglingar). Ellis-Davidson in her book God and Myths of Northern Europe makes some interesting connections between Ing and Freyr, and Scyld and Ull. Her book has some neat ideas -- I wouldn't say all her arguments are all founded, but it's definitely an interesting read.