ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1286 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1286 ************************************ From: "Brian M. Scott" 10 Oct 1998 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether was a correct feminine Scandinavian name for the period 800-1050. (The stands for the Scandinavian slashed-o, an with a diagonal slash through it.) You also asked whether you could use the site http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~kasab/arm/names/Scandinavian.html as documentation. is an attested variant of the name whose standardized scholarly Old Norse form is ; the slash stands for an acute accent over the preceding vowel. The name is pronounced approximately \REE-ki-tsa\. The name is a borrowing of , a pet form of some Germanic feminine name like . It was apparently introduced into Scandinavia in 1129 when Magnus, son of king Niels of Denmark , married Rikiza, the daughter of Polish Duke Boleslav III. It achieved some small popularity in Denmark and Sweden, especially amongst the nobility, and even produced such distinctively Danish forms as 1513 and 1423. [1, 3] It seems to have remained very rare in Norway, however, where the only known dated citations are from 1210 and 1339, and in Iceland it was almost unknown, with a single native example from 1255. [2] is based on the masculine name , a variant of ; its standard scholarly Old Norse form is . (The {oe} stands for a single letter, a ligature formed by squeezing an and an together so that a single line serves as the right-hand edge of the and the left-hand edge of the ; here it bears an acute accent.) The name is more common in the chronicles and historical sagas than in actual medieval documents, and more common in Norway than in Iceland. The literary examples preserve the initial , but we did find 1424 in Norway. [2] The Old Swedish and Old Danish form, , lacked the initial from an early date. It occurs with minor variations in early chronicles, but later it too seems to have become quite rare, though we do have Danish and Swedish citations c.1300 and 1319. [1, 2] Now let's put the pieces together. was not used in Scandinavia until some 75 years after your period. It was never common, especially in the west (Iceland and Norway), but it is found throughout Scandinavia in the 13th century and, apart from Iceland, in the 14th century as well. Thereafter it seems to have been confined to eastern Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden), where it took on somewhat different forms. fits reasonably well into the same time frame. Although its elements weren't particularly common, is entirely believable as an early 14th century continental Scandinavian name, and a case could be made for it as much as a century earlier in Denmark and Sweden. If you want to stick to the period 800-1050, however, you'll need to find a different given name; you can find some possibilities on the web in the article 'Viking Names found in the Landna/mabo/k' at http://www.wctc.net/~randomsf/landnamabok.htm If you decide to stick with the earlier period, we'll be happy to help you get an appropriately early form of the patronymic and to explain how your name would have been written in runes, the normal Norse medium of written communication in that period. Finally, the web page where you found the name is not acceptable as documentation. Although the Ars Magica names database, of which it is a part, contains quite a few perfectly good names, it also has some serious shortcomings: it does not give specific sources for each name, it relies heavily on unreliable sources, and it mixes periods and spelling conventions indiscriminately. In short, this page is no better than a decent baby-name book and can't be trusted for genuine historical documentation. Arval Benicoeur and Lindorm Eriksson also contributed to this letter. We hope that you'll write again if you have any further questions. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek ===== References: [1] Knudsen, G., M. Kristiansen, & R. Hornby. Danmarks Gamle Personnavne, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48), s.n. Rikiza. [2] Lind, E.H. Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, suppl. Oslo, Uppsala, and Ko|benhavn: 1931), s.nn. Ri/kiza, Hr{oe}/rekr. [Here stands for a-umlaut, and stands for an with a small ring directly above it.] [3] Louda, J., & M. Maclagan. Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1981), Tables 16 & 27.