ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1418 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1418 ************************************ 21 Jan 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is a correct 15th century French name meaning "James the Falcon of Rochelle". Here is what we have found. We did not find as a French form of , but we did find the fairly similar recorded in Paris in 1292 [1]. By the 15th century, however, that form may not have remained in use. For example, we find and in 14th and 15th century Picardy [2], and and are also recorded in 13th century Paris [1]. In southern France, the name is recorded as or in the 13th century, and those forms may have persisted into your period [5, 6, 7]. If you are interested in the particular spelling , then you may want to move your persona to Catalonia, where we find that spelling in 1593, or Castille, where we find it in the 15th century [3, 4]. If you're interested in this possibility and you'd like help choosing a Catalan or Castillian name, write us again. Here are pronunciations for these names: Jame \DZHAHM-@\ Jakeme \DZHAHK-@M-@\ Jakes \DZHAHK-@s\ Jaque \DZHAHK-@\ Jacme \DZHAHK-m@\ The symbol \@\ represents a schwa, the last sound in the word and the first in . "the Falcon" is a fine French nickname, most likely to have been used for a falconer. By the 15th century, personal descriptive epithets were a good deal less common than they had been earlier in the Middle Ages, but it is not inappropriate for your period. The spelling is correct: A similar word is recorded in the name 1340 "Lamequin the Falconer" [2]. Note that the proper translation of "the" for northern France is , not . In southern France, where they spoke Provencal, the phrase would have been [9, 10]. We did not find a place called in France, though it is a perfectly reasonable made-up place name. You may have been thinking of the city on the Atlantic coast, west of Poitiers, spelled this way since the 12th century [8]. If so, you should call yourself rather than . Putting it all together, is a reasonable name for your period, though we think or might have been more typical in northern France, in the south. 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 Talan Gwynek, Juliana de Luna, Eithni ingen Cormacc, and Teceangl Bach. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 21 Jan 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] 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 [2] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). [3] Gwara, Joseph J., Jr., "The Sala Family Archives: A Hand List of Medieval and Early Modern Catalonian Charters" (Georgetown University Press, 1984). [4] De La Torre, Antonio and E. A. de la Torre, eds., _Cuentas de Gonzalo de Baeza Tesorero de Isabel la Cato/lica_ (Madrid: Biblioteca "Reyes Cato/licos", 1956). [5] Ramons lo Montalbes, "French/Occitan Names From The XII And XIII Century" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/ramon/occitan/ [6] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Le Censier de Chomelix et de Saint-Just-pre/s-Chomelix (1204)_ (Lyon: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1978). [7] Chambers, Frank M., _Proper Names in the Lyrics of the Troubadours_ (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971). [8] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963), s.n. Rochelle. [9] Mendeloff, Henry, _A Manual of Comparative Romance Linguistics_ (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, Inc., 1969), pp. 23, 81. [10] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Faucon. He notes that and are southern French forms of the surname .