ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1409
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1409
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29 Dec 1998
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked if the masculine given name <Carroll> was used in English in the
12th to 15th centuries.  Here is what we have found.

As a first name, <Carroll> has several origins: It is an anglicization of
several different Irish names, and it is an English spelling of the forms
of <Charles> in several languages.

In Ireland, the given name <Carroll> is an English rendering of a Gaelic
masculine name spelled <Cerball> early in your period, <Cearbhall> later,
and pronounced \KyAIR-v@l\.  The \Ky\ sound is similar to the first sound
in <cute>; the \@\ represents a schwa, like the last sound in <sofa>.  The
Anglo-Irish surname <Carrol> was recorded in England in 1663 [1].  It isn't
impossible that an Irishman named <Cearbhall> who lived in England in the
15th century could have been known as <Carroll>, but we don't find an
example in our sources.  The modern name <Carroll> may well be a re-use of
the surname as a given name, a practice that began after your period.
<Carol> has also been used, at least in modern times, as an English form of
two other Irish men's names, <Cathaoir> and <Cathal> [2].

<Carol> can also be an English spelling of the Dutch <Karel> or <Carolus>,
Polish or Slovakian <Karol>, Romanian <Carol>, Czech <Karel>, etc.  All
these names are forms of <Carolus>, the Latin root form of <Charles> [2,
3].  It is conceivable that a Dutchman named <Karel> who immigrated to
England might have been called <Carol> or <Carroll> in our period, but we
have no evidence that it happened and we don't recommend it as good
re-creation.

We 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Margreit
McFee, and Talan Gwynek.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  29 Dec 1998


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References

[1] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Carrell.

[2] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_,
3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Carol.

[3] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of
First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983), s.n. Carol.