ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1177 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1177 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 19 Aug 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if , , , or a derivative of were used between 1300 and 1600 as feminine names in Italy. You also wanted to know if the surnames and were used in this same period. Here is the information we have found. Our sources on Italian names and naming practices are limited. We also have nothing that is specific to the Foggia Troia region of Italy, though we do have a collection of names from 13th century Perugia, that you might be interested in: http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/perugia/ We did not find as a period name in any of our Italian sources, though we did find the names and in the 13th century. These may be variants of . [1] is found in modern Italy, but we do not know when it first was used. [3] Since it was fairly popular in countries surrounding Italy, we would be surprised if it wasn't also used in Italy, at least late in our period. would be an excellent name for your period; we found this spelling in 1427. Other variants that we found are 13th century, 1427, and 1427 [1,2,4]. Forms of that we found are 13th century and 1427, and 13th century. [1,2]. Either of these names would be appropriate for your period. However, we did not find . In your period, the Italians often used diminutive, or nickname, forms of names. Such forms as , , and would all be appropriate as Italian names. [5] The surname was used throughout Italy with medium frequency. [3] It would make a fine surname for your period. Unfortunately, we could not find , nor anything similar to it, in any of our sources. If you let us know where you found it, we'd be happy to see if we can find more information on it. In summary, or would be fine mid-period Italian names. 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 Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, Arval Benicoeur, Modar Neznanich, and Alan Fairfax. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael Caermyrdin August 19, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from Thirteenth Century Perugia" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/perugia/ [2] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998) . http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/catasto/ [3] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei Cognomi Italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978). [4] Rhian Lyth, "Italian Renaissance Women's Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996) . [5] While we did not find these specific forms, they follow patterns of diminutive forms found in references [1] and [2].