ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1151 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1151 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 9 Aug 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information on the masculine name . You also asked for some history on Scarborough, England. Here is the information we have found. was never common in England, but it appeared occasionally from the 12th century onward. [1,2] We found the following forms: Valentinus 1196, 1200, 1203, 1205, 1284, 1433 Valantinus 1210-12 Matilda Valentyn 1251 William Valentin 1260 Valentyn le Warner 1327 Valentine 1553 and are Latin forms of the name; as Latin was the common language for written documents, a man named would be recorded in a legal document as . You'll want to choose a byname (surname) to complete your name. Between the 12th and 16th centuries, the period when we know that was used in England, the types of bynames that the English used varied considerably. If you would like help choosing the rest of your name, please write again, and we'll be happy to help. To help narrow down your time period, and perhaps give you some thoughts on what sort of surname you'd like, you might be interested in the book "A Dictionary of English Surnames" by P.H. Reaney & R.M. Wilson. This book can probably be found in your local library. The Academy's speciality is medieval names and armory; for the history of Scarborough, England, you'll be better served by your local library. We can tell you that according to the Old Norse 'Korma/ks saga' the town was built c.965 by <{TH}orgils Skar{dh}i>, after whom it was called 'Skardhi's fortified place'. ( is a nickname meaning 'hare-lipped.') The earliest English references that we've found are to c.1160 and 1158. [3]. The slash in these name represents an accent over the previous letter; the {dh} stands for the Norse letter , pronounced "th" as in , and the {th} stands for the Norse letter , pronounced "th" as in . 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, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael August 9, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). [3] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).