ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1656 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1656 ************************************ 20 May 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether <Lachlan FitzStephen> is an appropriate name for a man in the Scottish Lowlands between 1050 and 1250, the child of Anglo-Norman immigrants. Here is what we have found. Before I start, I'd like to clarify the service that the Academy offers. We try to help Societyfolk in choosing and using names that fit the historical cultures they are trying to re-create. Our research can sometimes be used to support submissions to the College of Arms, but that is not our goal and our results are often incompatible with the College's needs. If your main goal is to register a particular name, then we may not be able to help you. Several languages were spoken in 11th to 13th century Scotland. The major ones were: * Norse, spoken in the far north and the western isles. * English, spoken mainly in the southeast. * Gaelic, spoken through much of the country. * Norman French, spoken by Norman settlers who arrived in the 12th century, and by their Scoto-Norman descendents, mostly in the south. The languages were very different and had different naming customs. There was some mixing of names from the different cultures, but most names were not adopted into all of the cultures. The name <Lachlan> certainly existed in your client's period. It is a Gaelic name, which would have been spelled <Lochlainn> or <Lochlann> in Gaelic in this period. It is recorded in other languages, but we found no evidence that it was used in any language other than Gaelic [1]. <FitzStephen> is a fine Norman surname. Until well after 1250, it would have been used literally; i.e. a man would have been called <fitz Stephen> only if his father's given name were <Stephen>. The spelling <Stephen> is recorded in England in the early 13th century, so it should be appropriate at least for the end of your client's period [4]. However, we recommend a different spelling for the rest of the name: The spelling <Fitz> is a later-period development. If your period, we would expect either <fiz Stephen>, <le fiz Stephen>, or simply <Stephen> [5]. Unfortunately, we believe the combination of a Gaelic given name with a Norman surname is incompatible with your client's period. There was some mixing between Gaelic and Norman cultures in the 12th and 13th century, but we found no evidence that Norman parents gave their children Gaelic names. The first example we find of men with Gaelic first names and Norman-derived surnames is in 1296, <Gilascope fiz Rouland>. We found a few examples in the 14th century: <Murdac Richardesson> 1359, <Ion Williameson> 1388, <Duncan Rollo> 1394 [2]. This type of combination does not become common until the 15th century. The opposite combination shows up earlier, a Norman given name with a Gaelic-derived surname. For example: <Rolland, son of Ucdred> 1189-99, <Bernard filius Briani> c.1200 [3]. If your client wants a Scoto-Norman persona, we strongly recommend he choose a Norman given name; we do not believe that a Scoto-Norman family would have given their son a Gaelic name as early as 1250. If he wants to call himself <Lachlan FitzStephen>, then we recommend he move his persona into the 15th century or later. If your client would to choose a different first name, we could provide a short list of Norman names for him to consider. One final note: You contacted us on behalf of a client. We prefer to work directly with the client in order to minimize the chances of any mis-interpretation when information is passed through a second party. If this request is for a client who has e-mail or web access, we can provide further help to the client if s/he asks us directly. If not, thank you for passing the query along. 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 20 May 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Lachlan. [2] ibid., s.nn. Roland, Williamson, Rollo. [3] ibid., s.nn. Roland, Bernard. [4] Talan Gwynek, "Given Names from Early 13th Century England" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/eng13/ [5] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.nn. FitzHerbert, FitzSimon, FitzWilliam, Hugh, Stephen.