Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 054

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 054

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/054

This is one of the Academy's earliest reports. We are not confident that these early reports are accurate. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

There are a number of variant forms of the surname "Bald," in Reaney, including le Bald' (1178), Balde (1221), le Ballede (1248), le Balled (14th c); and a couple examples of "Calvus," the Latin word for "Bald."(1198, 14th c.) (1)

"Robert" is also a common English name; Withycombe cites the Latin form "Robertus" throughout the 12th and 13th centuries.

Depending on what more precise era, social class, and context of record you want to follow, this would support a number of possibilities including

and other minor permutations of spelling.

The use of "the" with a descriptive term such as "Bald" is not commonly found, although it's possible that the use of "le Bald" is a written translation of a spoken "the." It would certainly be reasonable to use the name "Robert the Bald."

Regarding your arms: counterchanging in tinctures other than the field is very unusual. Some examples can be found in late-period heraldry, but it's an unusual practice even then. We also found no examples of counterchanging over a bend; the counterchanging we found was done over a horizontal or vertical line, such as "per pale," "per fess," or "per chief." We would suggest a modification to these arms such as

Per pale argent and azure, a lion rampant counterchanged Per fess Or and gules, a lion rampant counterchanged

The tinctures on these designs could be modified as you like.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of St. Gabriel