ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1169 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1169 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 10 Oct 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wrote to us for advice concerning the name as the name of a German woman living around 1400. We found the name recorded in Germany in 1364, which is perfect for your period [1]. We don't think that your epithet is likely to have been used in period. Although we found examples of period German epithets based on the word , we didn't find any compounds like . The very abstract meaning that you're trying to convey, a premature child borne in late winter being called the "winter rose", is not the sort of idea that we've encountered in medieval epithets. They tend to be more concrete. For example, the name "from the roses" probably refers to an inn called "the roses" or a house decorated with roses. A more likely way to convey the meaning you have in mind is to use a nickname meaning "spring" or "April". For example, we found a 1431 example of , a form of "spring" [2]. The quotation mark, ", represents an umlaut on the . If you are particularly interested in names that incorporate the element or , here are some possibilities [2, 3]: Winterhoke 1381 winter-grocer / -dealer Winterhalter 1460 winter-slope Heinrich mit der rosen 1396 (with the roses) zem Rosin 1295, zum Rosen 1311 (at the roses, the name of a house) Rosenbeumere 1299, zum Rosenboume 1293 (rose-tree, a house name) Rosenblat 1452 (rose petal, originally a nickname) Rosenplu"t 1445 (rose blossom) Rosenbosch 1354 (rose bush, for someone who lived near one) Rosendorn 1417 (same meaning as the previous) Rosenstock 1471 (rose-tree, a house name) Rosenzwi^g 1440 (rose-branch, a house name; ^ is a circumflex on the ) We hope this letter has been helpful and that we can continue to assist you. Aryanhwy merch Catmael and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter. In service, --Walraven van Nijmegen and Arval Benicoeur Academy of S. Gabriel 10 Oct 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Talan Gwynek, _Medieval German Given Names from Silesia_ (WWW: SCA, 1998) http://www.panix.com/mittle/names/talan/bahlow/ [2] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutsches Namenlexikon_ (Baden-Baden: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985), s.n. Fro"(h)ling and names beginning Winter-. [3] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.nn. Rose, Rosenbaum, Rosenblatt, Rosenblu"th, Rosenbusch, Rosendorn, Rosenstock, Rosenzweig. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Arval, 12 Jan 2005: Add reference to note [1], which had been omitted.