ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1034 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1034 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 21 Jul 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to use the name for a Norse masculine persona in the 8th century. You said that was the proper name for a hawk, and that you found the name in one of the Icelandic sagas. Here is the information we have found. The usual form of the given name is . It is a Danish and Swedish form of the saint's name , which was originally borrowed into Old Norse as . Unfortunately, this borrowing took place well after your desired period. As is hardly surprising, saints' names weren't used in pre-Christian Scandinavia, so this borrowing cannot have occurred until the 11th century or so. In fact the earliest native Norwegian examples that we can find are from a little after 1300; the very few earlier instances in Norwegian records probably refer to foreigners. In general short forms similar to are even later: apart from an isolated instance of in 1319-20, the earliest examples that we found are 1488 and 1489. [1] (the slash represents an accent over the previous letter), is an Old Norse given name, found in the Eddas as and . [1] The Eddas were written in the 13th century, though composed much earlier. We found no connection between this name and hawks. It would be appropriate as a masculine given name, but not as a byname (descriptive nickname.) A given name can be turned into a patronymic byname, i.e., one that identifies the bearer by naming his father. Thus, someone with the byname would be the son of a man named . Unfortunately, it appears that went out of use at least a couple of centuries before any form of appeared, so isn't a possible combination, even in the late Middle Ages when was in use. If you would like assistance creating either a late-period Danish or Swedish name with as your given name, or an early-period Old Norse name using as your given name or as a patronymic byname, please write again and we will be happy to help. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Acadmey, --Arianui de Cair Mirdin July 21, 1998 --------------------------------------------------- References: [1] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Islandska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fran Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931).