Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 155

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 155

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/155

This is one of the Academy's earliest reports. We are not confident that these early reports are accurate. Please use it with caution.

Here is what we found on the name Cleatus and associated armory.

Unfortunately, we have every indication that "Cleatus" is a modern invention. It certainly doesn't appear in any sources on Scottish names we peruse, nor does it seems to be a classical Roman name.

We did find examples of the name "Cletus," which is a seperate name from "Cleatus." The name "Cletus" most likely derives from S. Cletus, the third Bishop of Rome. We found two examples of "Cletus" (and one of the related feminine name "Cleta") used in France between 600 and 1200. We found no evidence that "Cletus" or any name like it was used in Scotland at any point in history.

We did find a similar-sounding Scottish surname: "The Surnames of Scotland" by George Black cites Cleatoun (1622) and Cleat ("an old Orcadian surname", "Clat" cited in 1447). While your friend couldn't use these as his given name, he may want to consider using an authentic Scottish given name and using one of these as a surname. For information on Scottish naming practices, we can recommend Sharon Krossa's Web page on Scottish names:

http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/medieval_scotland.html

Regarding armory, we figured he means something like this, but rotated 45 degrees clockwise:

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              ____||____
             |##########|
             |#   ||   #|
             |#   ||   #|
             |#   ||   #|
             |    ||    |
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               ___||___
              | __  __ |
              ||  ||  ||
              ||  ||  ||
              ||  ||  ||
              ||  ||  ||
              ||  ||  ||

First of all, we need to clarify whether your friend wants a badge or a coat of arms. A badge is mostly used to signify his retainers or belongings, such as a household, but a coat of arms is a personal symbol, used only by the bearer (or his herald).

We believe this design differs from period practise in that it puts the charges bendwise, and we have not found any examples of period badges that uses charges in any but the default positions. Further, we have not found any similar designs for either period Scottish armory nor the armory of your friends period.

We haven't found any conflicts for this design, however.

If you need further assistance, please don't hesitate to get back to us.

Rouland Carre, Alan Fairfax, Arval D'Espas Nord, Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Zenobia Naphtali, Evan da Collureo, Pedro de Alcazar, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn all assisted with this letter.

Sincerely,
Hartmann Rogge
Academy of S. Gabriel