ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1759 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1759 ************************************ 21 May 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a woman in western Europe in the late 13th century, particularly in Ireland. This letter is a brief answer to your question. was a typical Anglo-Norman and French name in your period [1, 2, 3]. It was pronounced \KAHT-@-REE-n@\, where \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the in . or is a Norman form of . We found a in England in 1208 [4]. would be an excellent Norman name for your period, and could have been used by a woman in any of the Norman communities in France, England, Scotland, Wales, or Ireland. The preposition was usually used with a place name to show that a person was from that location. However, the Normans occasionally used it in your period as a patronymic particle, i.e. to form a surname that identified a person as her father's child. could have been used in Norman French to mean "Caterine, daughter of Benet" [5]. Indeed, the same woman might have been known as sometimes, other times, and (in Latin) in very formal circumstances. All these names mean exactly the same thing. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 21 May 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). [2] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/reaney/ [3] Talan Gwynek, "Given Names from Early 13th Century England" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/eng13/ [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Bennet. [5] Selten, Bo, _The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names_, 2 vols. (Lund, Sweden: Royal Society of Letters at Lund, 1979), I:51.