ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1150 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1150 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: "S Friedemann" 22 Aug 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would have been used as a Byzantine feminine name. Here is the information we have found. was the name of an early martyr from Asia; it was also the name of a daughter of a Byzantine emperor who ruled 1025-1028. [6, 8] While our only other reference to as a Byzantine name is in 1062, it is likely that it was used through to the end of the Byzantine empire. [2] is the Greek name of (the : represents an umlaut over the previous letter), a town in modern Albania. [1] In your period, it was at the north end of a region of that the Greeks called ( in Latin and modern English) [7]. At the splitting of the Roman Empire in AD 395, Epirus was on the western edge of the Eastern Empire. When the Byzantine Empire collapsed, Epirus remained an independent kingdom from 1204 to 1318, when Serbs and Albanians overran it. In 1430, the Ottoman Turks took over. [3] Between 1204 and 1261, Epirus was the center of resistance for Byzantine Greeks during the western European occupation of Constantinople. [4] If you're interested in a Byzantine persona, we recommend that you put yourself in the 13th or possibly the 14th century. In that period, before the Ottoman invasion, the culture of the area was focussed on Byzantium, so a Byzantine name would be appropriate. For general information on Byzantine naming practices, we suggest you read the following articles in our library: "Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era" http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/introduction.html "Common Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the 6th and 7th Centuries" http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/early_byz_names.html Most Byzantine noble women were identified either as their fathers' daughters or as their husbands' wives: for example, , a daughter of ; , daughter of ; , widow of . These examples were recorded before the 9th century. Family surnames began to appear in the 9th century, and from the first half of the 11th century, women's names appear in official records with surnames. Women almost always used their fathers' or occasionally their mothers' surnames rather than their husbands'. Among the nobility, family names were very often based on place names. [5] In your period, a locative family name (name based on location of residence) would be quite appropriate. We're not exactly sure what the correct form for "of Valona" would be for a lady in your period, but judging from other examples we've seen, our best guess is "Valonian" or "of the people of Valona." In your period, a Byzantine lady would not likely use an occupational byname (nickname based on the occupation). It is also unlikely that a woman from this period would have been known by more than one byname. We suggest you consider either or , both of which have the literal meaning "Zoe of Valona," but also carry the meaning "Zoe who is the daughter or wife of a man of a family Valones/Valonites." 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, Talan Gwynek, Margaret Makafee, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Barak Raz. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael August 22, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] "Vlore: proclamation" Britannica Online. [Accessed 29 July 1998]. http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/626/17.html [2] Bardas Xiphias, "Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era" (WWW: Privately published, 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/introduction.html [3] "Epirus" Britannica Online. [Accessed 29 July 1998]. http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/194/34.html [4] "Epirus, Despotate of" Britannica Online. [Accessed 29 July 1998]. http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/194/35.html [5] Cheynet, Jean-Claude, "L'Anthroponymie Aristocratique a\ Byzance" in Bourin, Monique, Jean-Marie-Martin, and Francois Menant, eds., _L'Anthroponymie: Document de l'Histoire Sociale des Mondes Me/diterrane/ens Me/die/vaux_, Collection de l'E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 226 (Rome: E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 1996), pp.267-294. [6] Skoutariotes, Theodoros, _Synopsis Chronika_ (excerpt), transl. Paul Halsall, in "Internet Medieval Source Book" (WWW: 1997), accessed August 1998. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/skoutariotes1.html [7] Bethel, John P., ed., _Webster's Geographical Dictionary_ (Springfield, Massachusetts: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1969). [8] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Zoe. She says that originated in the Jewish community of Alexandria as a Greek translation of , and later passed into general Greek use. She notes a 3rd century martyr. The name does not appear in "The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names" (P.M. Fraser and E. Matthews, WWW: Oxford University, 1998; http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/), an exhaustive collection of names from Greek sources up to the 6th century, so we are fairly confident that it did not come into widespread use in Greek much before the 11th century example we've cited. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addendum, 7 Jan 2002, Arval: Added note [8]