ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1452 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1452 ************************************ 26 Jan 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! Thank you for the information on the use of in medieval Spain. We would have written you sooner, but we were trying to track down a copy of Dauzat's book so that we could offer an opinion on his statement. Unfortunately, we haven't found the book. We agree that his comment seems very odd. In our own research, we've found ample evidence that was a common woman's given name from the 1100s onward. In the 15th and 16th centuries, 15% to 20% of women are named in the samples we've studied [1]. (The slash in the name represents an accent on the preceding letter.) It sounds like you're doing some interesting research; we'd love to hear more about it. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur/Josh Mittleman 26 Jan 1999 Notes [1] See our articles on the web at http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/romance.html