ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1246 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1246 ************************************ 18 Sep 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help constructing an authentic name for the 8th century woman , daughter of , a German solider who rose to be Emperor of Byzantium. Here is what we have found. (with the slash representing an accent on the preceding letter) is the standard transliteration of the Greek form of [1]. It may be a good choice for your period, although our best sources on medieval Byzantine names do not include it [2, 3]. We believe that in your period it would have been pronounced \eh-kaht-air-EE-nih\ (where the second and third syllables shouldn't be drawn out as much as this transcription might suggest). Greek naming practices in your period were very different from modern Greek naming. In your period, women in the Byzantine aristocracy were most often described by a single given name, without any surname. It would be perfectly authentic for your persona never to be called anything other than . When women needed to be distinguished further, they were described as their father's daughters or their husband's wives. For example, "Helena daughter of Artavasdos", "daughter of Ingerinos", , widow of a nobleman named . These examples are taken from seals, so are probably the best evidence available of what these women called themselves [4]. Family names began to appear in Byzantine records in the 8th century but did not become generally popular until the 10th century. Until much later in period, though, family names were used only by men; women were identified by a relationship to a man [4]. Therefore, even if we could demonstrate that were an authentic German place name, and we could translate it into 8th century Greek, it would not be an appropriate surname for a woman of your period [7]. Our sources do not include any medieval form of your father's name . was the cognomen (nickname) of the 1st century Roman poet [5], and while it conceivable that it remained in use in medieval Byzantium, we have no evidence that it did. The Greek form of the name is [6]. Assuming that a man could have used this name in your period, we believe his daughter would have been called [2]. We've followed the pattern demonstrated by the first two examples above: /, /. As you can see, there's a lot of speculation here: We don't know for certain that or was used in 8th century Byzantium. If they were, then we believe your persona would most often be called simply , and might sometimes be identified as . In a later note, you wrote that you had found the word or used to mean the descendent of a royal house, with the word or added to mean "son" or "daughter". The Greek words and simply mean "the", masculine and feminine. We're not sure how Greek royalty identified themselves, but we recommend that you not use this sort of byname in the Society. The Academy tailors its advice to historical evidence rather than the rules of the College of Arms, but we do operate within the general guidelines of Society custom. One strong custom says that we should not claim personal rank other than that we have earned for ourselves within the Society. A name which means "descendent of the royal house" would be a claim to rank. It would not be registerable with the College of Arms and it would transgress custom even if used only when your father is king. 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Aryanhwy Prytydes, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 18 Sept 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Katharine. [2] Bardas Xiphias, "Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/introduction.html [3] Bardas Xiphias, "Common Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the 6th and 7th Centuries" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/early_byz_names.html [4] Cheynet, Jean-Claude, "L'Anthroponymie Aristocratique a\ Byzance" in Bourin, Monique, Jean-Marie-Martin, and Francois Menant, eds., _L'Anthroponymie: Document de l'Histoire Sociale des Mondes Me/diterrane/ens Me/die/vaux_, Collection de l'E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 226 (Rome: E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 1996), pp.267-294. [5] _Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, Mass: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1975), p.1396. [6] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei Nomi Italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan, 1992), s.n. Lucano. [7] In fact, it is not a correct name for a German man or woman of your period, either. Surnames did not exist in German names until several centuries later. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -