ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1739 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1739 ************************************ From: Cardinal Ximenez 12 Jul 1999 Greetings, Here's the information we found on the name , which you wanted to use as a 12th-century Irish/Norse name. We weren't sure what you meant by "Irish/Norse." Your name is basically an appropriate Norse name, but none of the elements are Irish. This is actually appropriate, even if your persona does have Irish ancestors. In period, people did not combine names from two cultures to indicate mixed parentage. In the cases when two people from different cultures married, their children were named according to the naming practices of the community they lived in. Therefore, anyone living in a Norse-speaking community would have a Norse name. There is a discrepancy in the dates you picked and the information you gave. Brian Boru was king of Munster from 1002-1014, [1] so if you're interested in a persona from his time, you would be living in the 11th century, not the 12th. Although Norse influence waned in the late 11th and 12th centuries, there was a Norse presence in Ireland at least until the 1170's, and probably later. [2] Finally, we're assuming that the is intended to be , as in . is a fairly common mis-spelling of , but it has never been used in any Scandinavian language. With all that in mind, here's what we discovered: is a late-period Norwegian form--it would be appropriate for 1450 or later. The correct form of your name for 11th or 12th-century Old Norse is , pronounced roughly \LAYV-r ER-ling-son\). This is a purely Norse name, with no Irish elements--but, as we noted, anyone in a Norse-speaking community, even one in Ireland, had a Norse name. If you wanted to keep , you could also use the 14th-century form . can be derived from the Norwegian name . first appears in the late 13th century. It is a Norwegian form of the Old Norse name . We found the following forms (with dates): [3] before 1299 1365 1395 1359 1321 1457 1454 and are characteristically Norwegian; they do not appear in Icelandic, Swedish, or any of the other languages descended from Old Norse. Thus we looked at later forms of in Norwegian. Although the name went through a variety of spelling changes, the <-r> became more prominent in 13th and 14th centuries. Based on examples from other names, a likely form for this period is . [4] The earliest example we found without a final <-r>, , dates to 1491. [5] We doubt that any example would be found before about 1450. is a period name, but only for a Norwegian who lived after 1450. The form of the name that fits your current persona is , which is plausible for a 12th-century person who spoke Old Norse. The earliest we can recommend the spelling is the 14th century, when your name might have been written in Norway as . Lindorm Eriksson, Margaret Makafee, Effric neyn Kenyeoch, Zenobia Naphtali, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Hartmann Rogge, and Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn contributed to this letter. We hope that this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. In service, Alan Fairfax Academy of S. Gabriel [1] "The Battle of Clontarf" (WWW: Viking Network, 1998). Accessed July 2, 1999 at http://viking.no/e/ireland/e-clontarf.htm. [2] Gwyn Jones, _A History of the Vikings_, Oxford University Press, New York, 1984, p. 397. [3] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). s.n. Erlingr [4] We did not find this 14th century form of , but we are confident that it is an accurate form, analagous to <{TH}orleifuir> dated to 1303 in Bjerke, Robert, _A Contrastive Study of Old German and Old Norwegian Kinship Terms. Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics_ Memoir 22 of the International Journal of American Linguistics. (Baltimore: Waverly Press, Inc., 1969). [5] Lind, s.n. Leifr