ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1117 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1117 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 29 Jul 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to use either or as a feminine French name between 1250 and 1450. You also wanted our opinion on your proposed arms "Per chevron crusily fitchy gules and argent, in base a bear rampant gules." Here is what we have found. appears to be a French form of the Occitan , found in the 12th and 13th century. [1] Both and are lovely names. In the 13th century, would be more likely than : is a short form of the masculine name , and would indicate that your father's name was . [2] Thirteenth century women's names were rarely recorded with bynames based on place names, such as . A woman of that period would much more likely have been known as her father's daughter or her husband's wife. Later in period, perhaps in the 14th century, a woman might have been named by the place she lived. In medieval French, the preposition contracts into a word beginning with a vowel, so would be written and pronounced . While your proposed arms are somewhat similar in construction to what we see in a roll of arms in the 15th century, there are a number of changes that could be made to make it more authentic for your culture and time period. For your period, crusily is an excellent choice, though it would be more authentic to have the entire field crusily, rather than half the field. We would like to suggest the following alternatives: "Argent crusily, a bear rampant gules" A white field strewn with red crosses, and a red bear rearing up on its hind leg. Rampant is just slightly more common in bears than passant is in your period. "Gules crusily, on a chief argent a bear passant gules" A red field strewn with white crosses, and on a white band across the top, a red bear with one foreleg raised as if in walking. Both of these arms appear to be free from conflict with any other arms protected by the Society for Creative Anachronism. 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 AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, Arval Benicoeur, Evan da Collaureo, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Roulland Carre, Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Zenobia Naphtali. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael July 29, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Ramons lo Montalbes, "French/Occitan Names From The XII And XIII Century" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) [2] Cateline de la Mor, "Names from Fourteenth Century Foix" (SCA: Trimarian Known World Heraldic Symposium, AS XXIX; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) .