ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1603 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1603 ************************************ 5 Apr 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help choosing a feminine African, Egyptian, or Romany name. This brief letter is an answer to your question. In much of northern Africa, including Egypt, North Africa, Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and Zanzibar, the elite classes were Muslim from the Middle Ages onward. In all Muslim communities, Arabic names were common, though other names may also have been used. If there is a particular African culture that interests you, we can try to find more information about it; but we don't currently have any reliable information about names in most medieval African cultures. However, we do believe that an Arabic name would be appropriate in any culture that adopted Islam. We have some information about period Arabic names available on the web, including lists of women's and men's first names. You can find it in our medieval names website http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/ When they were identified beyond their given names, Muslim women in our period were generally known either as their father's daughters or as their son's mothers, e.g. "Maryam daughter of Hassan", "Rashid's mother Maryam". We have been able to learn very little about Romany names. What we have found, we've posted on the web: Romany (Gypsy) Names http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/romany/ The best advice we can offer for accurate re-creation of a Romany name is to decide where and when you want to place your persona, and pick a name typical of that culture. We hope this brief 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 Juliana de Luna and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 5 Apr 1999