ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1657 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1657 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 3 Apr 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if the Biblical name would be an authentic name for an Englishman living between 1000 and 1600. You also wanted to know what the original pronunciation of the name was. Here is a quick reply to your question. is an English transliteration of the Hebrew name of one of Adam's great-grandsons [1,2]. While determining the pronunciation of ancient Hebrew names is difficult as Hebrew did not have written vowels until about the 11th century [3], we were able to reconstruct a plausible pronunciation of the name: \kay-NAHN\. In this pronunciation, the \k\ sound is softer than the normal English \k\, but it is harder than the \ch\ sound in German or Scottish , and the \ah\ is long in duration, though not in sound. We have seen no examples of in any culture in period Europe. Only a handful of Old Testament names were used by Christians in Europe before the Reformation, specifically those of Biblical figures who had major roles in the Old Testeament. Most Old Testament names were not used by European Christians until well after our period. Jew and Muslims used a somewhat larger selection, but they also used only a limited subset. The custom of naming children with obscure Old Testament names arose with the English Puritans late in the 16th century and reached full flower in the late 17th and 18th centuries among other Protestant sects. We recommend that you consider a different name. If you would like, we can look for similar sounding English names. Or, if you'd like, there are some articles on English names available on the web at the forllowing URLs: "Given Names from 13th Century England" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/eng13/ "Yorkshire Given Names from 1379" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/yorkshire/ "English Names from Pre-16th Century Brass Inscriptions" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/brasses/ We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Walraven van Nijmegen, Arval Benicouer, Talan Gwynek, Rouland Carre, Jaelle of Armida, and Blaise de Cormeilles. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael April 3, 1999 --------------------------------------- References & Notes: [1] Genesis 5:14 [2] 1 Chronicles 1:2 [3] The 11th century Masoretes were not the first to indicate the vowels in written Hebrew, but their methods were the most popular and remained in use for many centuries.