ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1582
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1582
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16 Apr 1999
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked about forms of <James> found in the British Isles before 1000,
and for surnames appropriate for an armorer or blacksmith.  Here is what we
have found.

<James> is an English name derived from Latin <Jacomus> or <Iacomus>, a
late Roman variant of <Iacobus> "Jacob".  Other medieval derivatives of
<Iacomus> include <Giacomo> in Italian, <Jaime> in Spanish, <Jacme> in
Provencal, and <Jakemes> and <James> in French.  The English version of the
name derived from these French forms, carried to England by the Normans in
the 11th century.  The Normans carried the name onward to Ireland in the
12th century, where it was adopted into Irish Gaelic as <Se/amus> by the
13th [1, 2].  The slash in the name represents an accent on the preceding
letter.  We did not find any version of <Iacomus> in the British Isles
before the Norman Conquest.

<Iacobus> and its variants arrived somewhat earlier.  The forms <Jacob> and
<Jaco> appear in Welsh records of the 6th to 10th century [3] and <Iacob>
or <Iacobus> are recorded in Anglo-Saxon documents from the 7th and 10th
centuries [4].  Among the Anglo-Saxons, the name was mostly used as an
ecclesiastical devotional name, which may not fit the persona you have in
mind [5].  We did not find evidence of this name in use in Ireland before
the year 1000.

The Welsh word for "smith" is recorded as <gob> in your period, pronounced
\GOHV\.  We also found an early medieval Welshman identified as <Gurceneu
faber>, using the Latin word for "smith" [3].  Either occupational term
would be appropriate for your period: <Jaco Gob> or <Jacob Faber>.  In
fact, the same man might well have been identified by both these names in
different circumstances.

If you prefer an Anglo-Saxon name, then the equivalent surname is <se
smi{dh}> "the smith" [5, 6], where {dh} represents the letter edh, which is
pronounced here like the <th> in <thing> and written like a rounded <d>
with a crossbar on the ascender.  An Anglo-Saxon monk named <Iacob> who was
also a smith could have been identified as <Iacob se smi{dh}> or in Latin
as <Iacobus faber>.  The Anglo-Saxon version is pronounced \YAH-kohp say
SMITH\.


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, Tangwystyl verch
Morgant Glasvryn, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Walraven van Nijmegen.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  16 Apr 1999


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References

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

[2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The
Lilliput Press, 1990), s.b. Se/amus.

[3] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "The First
Thousand Years of British Names", (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998).
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/british1000/

[4] Searle, William George, _Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum_ (Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge, 1897).

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

[6] Clark, Cecily, "Onomastics", in Richard Hogg, _The Cambridge History of
the English Language_ (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992).