ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1660 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1660 ************************************ From: "Lisa Mohr" 5 Aug 1999 Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked for assistance in documenting the French name with the intended meaning of "Gabrielle the deer hunter". Here is what we have found. In French, the name came into use only late in our period. We found one example recorded in the 16th century [1]. Masculine forms appeared much earlier, but were not common until late period [2,3,4]. If you'd like to consider another name that was used earlier in period, you can find several dated lists on the web in the French names section of our Medieval Names archive: http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/french.html Your surname, , doesn't fit the patterns of name formation that we've observed in medieval sources. A medieval French deerhunter might have been known as "the hunter". We found that surname used in 1293 [5]. The same word exists in modern French and means "deerhunter", so it may have had that connotation the Middle Ages, too. Alternatively, a deerhunter might have been called "deer" or something like that. The modern French surnames , , and all derive from a word that meant "roe deer" [6]. Any of them is a plausible medieval byname. Hunting was usually a man's occupation, of course. A medieval woman called (the feminine form of ) might perhaps have been a hunter herself, but her name would more often have been understood to mean "wife or daughter of a man known as ". However, your given name wasn't used in France until the 16th century, by which time the French were using inherited family names, just as we do today, rather than personal descriptions. is a fine 16th century name; but it would only have meant that Gabrielle's father's surname was , not that either of them was actually a hunter. 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, Arval Benicoeur, Walraven van Nijmegen and Blaise de Cormeilles. For the Academy, Elisabeth de Rossignol 5 August 1999 ------------------------------------------------------- References [1] Perouas, L., B. Barrie\re, B., J. Boutier; J.-C. Peyronnet, & J. Tricard, _Le/onard, Marie, Jean et les Autres: Les Pre/noms en Limousin depuis un Mille/naire (Paris: E/ditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1984). [2] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997) [URL:http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html]. [3] Cateline de la Mor, "Sixteenth Century Norman Names" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) [URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/cateline/norman16.html]. [4] Luana de Grood, "Flemish Given Names from Bruges, 1400-1600", (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996) [URL:http://www.s-gabriel.org/docs/bruges/]. [5] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). [6] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987).