ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1229 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1229 ************************************ 21 Sep 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our opinion of the name or , which you want to use for a 16th century Swiss mercenary living in Paris. You also asked about your design for your arms, "Sable, on a bend voided two compass-stars radiant Or." Here is what we have found. is an English or Scots form of a name brought to Britain by the Normans. The name ultimately derived from Germanic roots, and forms of it survived in several western European languages; but is found only in Britain [1]. In Germany, we find the latinized in the 12th and 13th centuries, and in 1270 [2, 3]. We didn't find any examples from Switzerland, but is a reasonable choice for that region. We can't say whether was used in Switzerland or not, but we did find other examples of surnames which include the word [3]. In these examples, a quotation mark <"> in a name represents an umlaut over the preceding letter. Zwenpfennig 1279 ('two-penny', prob. from a rent or tax) Arnold Zwenschilling 1297 ('two shilling', found near Luzern; also as in Zu"rich in 1357). Czweihutel c.1350 ('two-caps') Henne von Kiedrich genannt Zweyerleygemu"se 1484 ('two kinds of vegetables'; means "called") Zweikopf 1506 (literally two-head, for the double beaker whose hollow foot is a second cup) Joh[an] Zweimann 1587 (originally for a member of some sort of two-man group) As a descriptive epithet, is most likely to have derived originally from a house name. Someone in the 13th or 14th century who lived in or near a house or inn decorated with two stars might be known as "at the Two Stars". We've found similar epithets [3, 4]: Walth[er] zum Sterne 1255 in Basel Walther zem Sternen 1295 in Alsace Cunr[ad] von dem Steren 1327 Burchart zem Rosin 1295 in Alsace ("at the roses") Wernher zum Rosen 1311 in Basel Oberli zu der Gygen 1450 ( "at the violin") By the 16th century, it was rare for people to adopt new descriptive surnames, but older descriptions survived as inherited surnames. If your ancestor had been known as , you might have inherited the surname . Based on the examples in our references, we think this spelling is more likely in a surname than . It's difficult to figure out what a man from one country might be called if he moved to another country. In general, we've found that the local population in his new home would use a local equivalent of his given name and either some approximation of his surname in the local language or a new epithet based on his homeland. For example, there are 25 people listed in the Paris census of 1292 who are surnamed "the Lombard". They were natives of Italian-speaking Lombardy living in Paris; whatever they were called at home, the Parisians called them . One example is . is an attempt to render the Italian into French. Another man is recorded as ; at home he was probably called [5]. (The comma in the name represents a cedilla on the .) The 14th century English mercenary captain was known to his Italian employers as [6]. is the Italian form of , and is an Italian word that sounds a little like . These examples are much earlier than your period, of course. In the 16th century, when people in most countries in western Europe were using fixed, inherited surnames rather than individual descriptive epithets, we would expect your name to be recorded in France in pretty much the same form as in Germany. The spelling might have been adapted to local practice, but we can't guess how that might have been done. We doubt that your surname would have been translated literally into French. That might perhaps have happened a few centuries earlier -- although we don't actually have examples where it did happen -- but probably not in the 16th century. We should emphasize that we are speculating here: We don't have very much data from 16th century France, and we don't have a detailed study of how names were translated from one language to another. This is our best guess. The arms you asked about could be blazoned "Sable two compass-stars rayonannt between two bendlets Or." Your basic design is quite nice, but we have one suggestion for improving it. The "compass-star", with alternating long and short rays, is not found in period heraldry. As far as the Society's College of Arms has been able to discover, it was not used in heraldry until modern times -- and possibly not at all outside the Society! However, the charge you're describing, with straight rays alternating with wavy rays, is a reasonable rendition of the heraldic "sun". That charge is more often drawn with all the rays the same length, but that's a small distinction. We're pretty confident that a period herald would have called your stars "suns". You can see what we have in mind at http://www.heraldica.org/shell/illustr.pl?251 Remove the face, which was only sometimes drawn, make the rays narrower so that the crevices between them cut deeper into the sun, and you end up with a charge that's not very different from your stars. For comparison, we're assuming that your stars look very similar to http://www.heraldica.org/shell/illustr.pl?259 If you particularly want the charges in your arms to be recognized as stars, then you probably want to use the standard heraldic "estoile", which has six or eight wavy rays, all the same length. Either of the two resulting designs would be good choices for your period: Sable, two suns between two bendlets Or. Sable, two estoiles between two bendlets Or. 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 Talan Gwynek, Zenobia Naphtali, Walraven van Nijmegen, Teceangl Bach, Aryanhwy Prytydes, and Rouland Carre. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 14 Sep 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). [2] Talan Gwynek, "German Given Names 1200-1250" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/germ13/ [3] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.nn. Rorich, Zweimann, Zweikopf, Zweihu"tel, Zweyerleygemu"se, Zweipfennig, Zweischilling, Stern, Rose. [4] Bahlow, Hans, _Dictionary of German Names_, tr. Edda Gentry (German-American Cultural Society, 1994 ISBN: 0924119357), s.n. Rose. [5] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html [6] This name appears in an inscription on a memorial painting in the cathedral of Florence. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -