ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1097 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1097 ************************************ From: 23 Jul 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wrote to us concerning the name . You wanted this to be a continental Germanic name from the 14th century. You also wanted to know about armory involving a single star in a tree of ash. The name is a very nice name, but is not German. The suffix '-croft' is unmistakably English, and would not be found in a German or Dutch name. If you don't mind being English, then would be the most likely spelling for the 14th century, and either or would be fine as well [1]. On the other hand, if you really want to be German (or Dutch), the standard German form of is . The Dutch also used , but the characteristically Dutch spelling is [2]. The name was one of the most common men's names in both languages, and so would be an excellent choice. For your byname, we could not find a precise equivalent for in German or Dutch. We did find several German names based on other kinds of trees, e.g. "Linde" (=linden) & "Eiche" (=oak), from which we can construct parallel forms using German "Esche" (=ash tree) [3,4]: Eich Esch Eicher; Eichler Esch(l)er Aichen Eschen von der Eiche 1284; von der Aich 1373 von der Esche zur Eiche 1298 zur Esche ze den Linden 1369 ze den Eschen u{sz} der Linden 1377 u{sz} der Eschen [5] under der lynden 1383; ..Aych 1350 under der Esch(en) Lindner 1348; Lindener 1372; Eichner Eschner die Aichellerin 1397 der Escheller (one who lives by or in the small ash-wood) A Dutch name (using or ), could be constructed using any of the following [6,7,8]: van den Esch from the Ash (tree) van den Essche " van Eschbroec from Ash-brook van Esbroek " van Essebroek " van Esschenhout from Ash-wood van Essenholt " van Eysschenhout " To summarize, you have several options for an authentic name: (a) keep the sound of your name and be an Englishman named , (b) take one of the German bynames and combine it with , or (c) combine a Dutch byname with or . We weren't entirely certain what you meant by arms with a single star in a tree of ash, but we assume you mean that there is a large, white, ash tree in the center of the shield and a white mullet (five-pointed star) near the top of the shield. If we were incorrect and our discussion below is insufficient, please feel free to contact us again. Firstly, from what we've seen Germans and Dutch tended to draw mullets with six points rather than five [9,10,11]. Should you opt for a German persona, it would be better to draw your "star" with six points. Should you opt for an English persona, the norm would be for five points. The best designs for including both a tree and a star would all have the tree as the large and primary charge, using the star as a smaller and less important one. We recommend one of the following arrangements: (a) put the star "in canton", in the upper left corner of the shield (b) use two or three stars in a row at the top of the shield, above the tree (c) put the star on the tree, in the same color as the background Without knowing what colors you prefer, we cannot offer specific suggestions or advise you on potential conflict problems with registration. Feel free to contact us again if you need further assistance. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Talan Gwynek, Zenobia Naphtali, Arval Benicouer, and Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin contributed to this letter. In service, --Walraven van Nijmegen Academy of S. Gabriel [1] Talan Gwynek, personal communication [2] G.M. Van der Velden, _Het Oudste Cijnregister van de Abdij van Berne uit 1376_ ('s-Hertogenbosch: Rijksarchief in Noord-Brabant, 1982) [3] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutsches Namenlexikon_ (Baden-Baden: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985) s.nn. Eich, Lindner [4] Josef Karlmann Brechenmacher, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der Deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960) s.nn. Aich, Aicher, Aichler, Ascher, Eich, Linden [5] The {sz} represents the letter in German that looks like the Greek letter "beta" and is often modernly transliterated as a double "s" [6] Wilfried Beele, _Studie van de Ieperse Persoonsnamen uit de Stads- en Baljuwsrekeningen 1250-1400" Familia et Patria. (1975) [7] A. Huizinga, _Encyclopedie van Namen_, (Amsterdam: A.J.G. Strengholt, 1955) [8] J. Verdam, _Middelnederlandsch Handwoordenboek_ (Leiden, Antwerpen: Martinus Nijhoff, 1911, repr. 1981) [9] Jan van Helmont, _Gelre_ (Leuven, 1992) [10] Bellenville Roll of Arms [Zenobia Naphtali, personal comm.] [11] Walraven van Nijmegen, _Analysis, Armorial, and Ordinary of Armory Recorded in Paul Bergman's "Armorial de Flandre du XVIme Siecle"_ (SCA: KWHS Proceedings 1997; WWW: Brian R. Speer, 1997) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1336/bergmans.html