ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1451 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1451 ************************************ From: Teceangl 23 Mar 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about an Italian translation of the word "thistledown" for use as a Renaissance surname. You also mentioned that you had found the names and with the meaning "thistle" in Italian and were interested in them if "thistledown" was not appropriate. Here is the information that we have found. We noted that in your request you mentioned the name . , with the final 's', is a modern Spanish surname (a surname is a fixed, hereditary family name); it is not correct for period Italian. Since you asked specifically about Italian, we have used the correct Italian surname in our research. Some nicknames were based on the name of a plant or distinctive part of a plant, but we cannot find direct evidence that any word meaning "thistle" or "thistledown" was used that way in period. The modern Italian translation of "thistledown" is either or [2, 3]. The latter seems to be a reasonable choice for a nickname, but we can't find any evidence that it was ever used that way. We did find the modern surname , which probably derives from a name for the plumed thistle. We don't know if this surname existed in period, but it's not unlikely, especially late in period. Some instances of the surname may derive from the Italian "thistle", but it is usually derived from a nickname for , , or a similar given name. Medieval and Renaissance Italian routinely formed nicknames from the last two syllables of a name, e.g. , and the augmentative suffix <-one> was often added to nicknames, hence "Big Rick" [1]. We cannot recommend or as the best re-creation of period Italian names, since we have no direct evidence that they were used, but they are both plausible surnames. We noticed that you used three given names in your request. Throughout our period, most people had only one given name. Double given names appeared in Italy by the 13th century, and became more common in the 14th and 15th centuries. The later you set your persona, the more reasonable it would be to use a double given name. Triple given names are unknown until well after our period. You mentioned that you had found the names in the Academy library article on Italian Renaissance Women's Names. In that time period, either a single or double given name would be appropriate for your persona. In Renaissance Italy, a woman would generally have been known by a patronymic (a name indicating who her father was) and possibly a family name [4]. So, you might use "Francesca, daughter of Martino Carduccio", or . Although the latter name doesn't have anything directly to do with thistles, the similarity of to the word for "thistle" is a nice excuse to use a thistle in your arms. That practice, where the charge in your arms puns on your family name, is called "canting", and it was very popular in period Italian heraldry. A period example of a thistle cant can be found in the Aragonese section of the Lutzelbourg Armorial in which the blazon for Le conte de Cardon is recorded as 'Gules, three thistles or' [5]. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or you have any other questions. I was assisted in writing this letter by Arval d'Espas Nord, Alan Fairfax, Zenobia Naphtali, Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, Hartmann Rogge, and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, Teceangl Bach ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Fucilla, Joseph G., _Our Italian Surnames_ (Evanston, IL: Chandlers' Inc., 1949). pp.58, 82, 95-96, and chapter 7. [2] Collins Italian-English dictionary, on-line (restricted access) [3] Reynolds, Barbara, ed., _The Concise Cambridge Italian Dictionary_ (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England & New York: Penguin, 1975). [4] Borgia, L., et. al., eds., _Le Biccherne : tavole dipinte delle magistrature senesi (secoli XIII-XVIII)_ (Roma : Ministero per i beni culturali e ambientali, 1984). [5] Armorial de Nicolas de Lutzelbourg (WWW: Public Library of Nancy, 12 Feb 1998), [URL:http://www.nancy2.u-nancy.fr/RECHERCHE/MOYENAGE/lutzint.htm]. See the arms of the Conte de Cardon, 306.6, at [URL:http://www.nancy2.u-nancy.fr/RECHERCHE/MOYENAGE/fol_32.htm].