ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1582 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1582 ************************************ 16 Apr 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about forms of found in the British Isles before 1000, and for surnames appropriate for an armorer or blacksmith. Here is what we have found. is an English name derived from Latin or , a late Roman variant of "Jacob". Other medieval derivatives of include in Italian, in Spanish, in Provencal, and and 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 by the 13th [1, 2]. The slash in the name represents an accent on the preceding letter. We did not find any version of in the British Isles before the Norman Conquest. and its variants arrived somewhat earlier. The forms and appear in Welsh records of the 6th to 10th century [3] and or 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 in your period, pronounced \GOHV\. We also found an early medieval Welshman identified as , using the Latin word for "smith" [3]. Either occupational term would be appropriate for your period: or . 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 "the smith" [5, 6], where {dh} represents the letter edh, which is pronounced here like the in and written like a rounded with a crossbar on the ascender. An Anglo-Saxon monk named who was also a smith could have been identified as or in Latin as . 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 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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).