ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1136 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1136 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 9 Aug 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help creating a 15th or 16th century feminine name. The names you were interested in are or for a Norse persona, or for an English persona, or or for a French persona. You were looking for names that signifies the values and qualities of honor, honesty, integrity, loyalty, truth, trustworthiness, precision, and beauty. We will consider your names one by one. *The Norse name or These names that you were interested in are Norse, so we will discuss them in that context. The Norse language was spoken only in the early Middle Ages, and not in the 15th or 16th century. If you would like a Norse persona, you will have to set it sometime in the 9th to 12th centuries. If you want a 15th or 16th century persona, then you'll need to be Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish. The closest Norse feminine names to that we found are and [1]. (The slash represents an accent over the previous letter). was a fairly common feminine name. [1,8] The name is not a correct Norse name. There was a masculine given name ; Atli's daughter would have been called . is the possessive form of (like in English), and is the Norse word for . As both and were found in early medieval sources, either or would be excellent Viking age or early medieval feminine names. Most people in Norse culture did not use any surname other than their patronymic byname, i.e., a name that identified them as their father's children, like . You could use a second, descriptive byname of some kind, but it is not necessary, and in any formal situation you would have been known as your father's daughter. Either or would be excellent Viking age or early medieval feminine names, but they would not be used during the 15th or 16th century. If you want to keep these names you'll have to set your persona sometime in the 9th to 12th centuries. If you want a 15th or 16th century persona, then you'll need different names. *The English Name or We did not find as an English name. is a French form of , or . We find the spelling recorded in the 15th century, and in 1315. [2] Other forms that we found are [9] 1379 1327 1379 1323 1322 The English name was derived from the Greek word , meaning "truth." The earliest example that we find of it is 1606, which is just outside of your desired period. [2] It would be better recreation to choose a name that we know was used pre-1600. We were unable to find anything similar to in English place names; the closest in sound we found is a , spelled this way in the 16th century. [3] By the 15th and 16th century in England, nearly everyone used inherited surnames. A name such as would not mean that Tyffany lived at Mountford; rather, it would mean that Tyffany's father's surname was . If you'd like to consider some other choices for your given name, there is a very good list on the web: "Late Sixteenth Century English Given Names" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/eng16/ *The French Name or is a French spelling of the English name . It was recorded in Paris in 1292, along with and , as well as the diminutives and . [6] We do not have evidence that this name was still in use as late as the 15th and 16th centuries in France, so we recommend that you consider choosing a different name dated closer to your period. We did not find used as a feminine name. was a French masculine name, ultimately derived from Latin [7]. The feminine form of the Latin name, , could possibly have produced as a feminine name, too, but since the masculine name already exists, we suggest adding a feminine ending: , , or . We don't have an example of any form of in your period, but we believe it is a reasonable choice. The given name survived long enough to produce several surnames that have survived to modern times: , , , . It is therefore likely that the masculine was used in the last couple centuries of our period, and it is plausible that a feminine form like could also have been used. [7] If you would like to consider some other names suitable for your period, there is a list available on the web: "Sixteenth Century Norman Names" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/cateline/norman16.html We did not find anything similar to in either French or English surnames. If you are looking for a name that signifies honor, you might want to consider the given names , Honorete>, and , all of which we found recorded in 1292. [6] You could also use the masculine form of as a patronymic. The forms , , , and would make fine late-period surnames. Another option would be to use a byname such as . [7] 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 Walraven van Nijmegen, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, Margaret Makafee, Zenobia Naphtali, Arval Benicoeur, Teceangl Bach, Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, Pedro de Alcazar, and Evan da Collaureo. For the Academy, --Arianuia filia Catmaili August 9, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Geirr Bassi Haraldsson, (pseudonym for Fleck, G.), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica I (series) (Private Printing, Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). [2] E. G. Withycombe, _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd Ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) [3] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980). [4] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963). [6] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). [7] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de Famille_ (Librairie Acade/mique Perrin, 1997). [8] Uppsala University Department for Scandinavian Languages, _Rundata_, software pre-release version 8.84 (test) (Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala universitet, 1990). [9] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/reaney/.