ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1190 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1190 ************************************ 28 Sep 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about the name , which you want use as a Swiss-German woman's name, and about your design for your arms. Here is what we have found. Your note suggested that you are basing your persona on ancestors that you've traced to Maracon, Switzerland. That's a fine start for a persona. We found a few details that may interest you. Maracon is a village in the Swiss canton of Vaud. That part of Switzerland is French-speaking. If you want to set your persona there, you may want a French name rather than German. is a fine period German name. We have an example recorded in eastern Germany in 1364 [1], and the name certainly remained in use to the end of our period. The French form, , is recorded in 16th century Normandy [2]. Both those examples are pretty far from Vaud, but we have no doubt that the name was used there, too. (The slashes in the name represent accents on the two e's.) Your own research placed the surname in Maracon in 1570. We'd be interested to know where you found that reference. We're always looking for new sources of information on period names. We haven't found the name in any of our references; it may originally have been a patronymic surname (i.e. one that identified someone's father) based on a given name or . We didn't find those names either, but we've seen other names which use the same roots [3], so we have no trouble believing that it existed. However, since we can't trace the name any earlier in history, we recommend that you stick with a late-period persona, with as your family name. may be a reasonable late-period Swiss-German name. is certainly a fine name for late-period Vaud. The modern arms of the village of Maracon are "Gules, a bend Or cotised argent and on a chief Or a demi-lion issuant gules." These arms were designed in 1927, combining the demi-lion of the arms of the lords of Pale/zieux with the cotised bend of the Billens family which succeed to the lordship in 1302 [4]. If you want your persona to be a member of one of these historical families, it would be very good re-creation to use a variant of their arms. For example, if we assume that the Billens family bore "Gules, a bend Or cotised argent" and that they ruled Maracon until the 15th and 16th centuries, then a late-period member of the family might have used something like "Gules, a bend Or cotised between six fleurs-de-lys argent". As far as we can tell, you could register this design with the SCA College of Arms. I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Rouland Carre, Walraven van Nijmegen, Talan Gwynek, and Elsbeth Anne Roth. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 28 Sep 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Talan Gwynek, "Medieval German Given Names from Silesia" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1998). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/bahlow_v.htm [2] Cateline de la Mor, "Sixteenth Century Norman Names" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/cateline/norman16.html [3] The name is recorded in 13th century Picardy. The first theme derives from Frankish , for which is a very likely variation. The second element <-nand> is recorded in several early medieval French names. could also have arisen from the enlarged combined with the hypocoristic suffix <-and>. Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972). [4] Town web pages, accessed 21 Sept 1998. The modern arms of Pale/zieux are "Sable, on a chief Or a demi-lion issuant gules". http://www.region-oron.ch/ecoleORON/communes/Maracon/commune.htm http://www.region-oron.ch/palezieux/default.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -