ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1805 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1805 ************************************ 22 Nov 1999 From: Alan Terlep Greetings, Here is the information we found about , which you wanted to use as a Russian woman's name from the 13th century. We also found some information about your arms. Russian names are written in the Cyrillic alphabet. All the spellings we have below use a system of transliteration that represents each Cyrillic letter with one or more English letters that approximate its sound. You can see the Cyrillic alphabet and their Latin equivalents on the Web: http://www.friends-partners.org/newfriends/cyrillic/russian.alphabet.html The English letter isn't normally used to transliterate any Cyrillic letter. However, we did find the forms , (both dated to 988), and (dated to around 1200). (1) All these forms would be appropriate for your culture. We haven't found any evidence that three-part names were used in Russian before the 15th century. For most of the SCA period, most people were identified by a given name and a patronymic. Family names did not become standard until the modern era. is a name meaning "Feodor's daughter." Many different spellings of come from your period--we found (2nd half of 12th C), (12th-13th), and (1342). We also found the feminine dated to 1324--this shows that would also be an appropriate spelling for your period. (2) The ending <-ovna> wasn't normally used to mean "daughter of..." until the 16th century--in your period, the suffix <-ova> was used instead. So , , , or are all possible Russian names from your period meaning "Feodor's daughter." (3) We didn't find any evidence that was a Russian name, and we were unable to come up with any other words or names that would be likely to produce it. Since a family name is inappropriate for your period in any case, we recommend that you drop this element and use one of the forms of that we were able to document. You mentioned that your persona is living in Granada. In 1273, Granada was under Arab control and Arabic, which is completely unrelated to Russian, was the local language. We can't say anything specific about what a Russian named might have been called in Granada, since we have no evidence that any Russian people ever lived there. However, we can make some general statements about what happened to the name of a person who moved to a place where their native language was not spoken. Often, the people who met a foreign traveller or immigrant lived would identify the foreigner with a name that conformed to the local customs and language. In many cases a foreigner's given name was replaced with a related local name--when there was no local equivalent, familiar names of more or less similar sound were sometimes substituted. Foreign surnames were treated in many different ways, including substitution of a completely unrelated name more compatible with the local culture. We didn't find any form of that was used as an Arabic name in period, and so we have no way to suggest a name that might have been used to identify you in an Arabic-speaking area. However, the name is found in Christian Spain (4), and if you were living in a Christian-dominated part of Spain it is likely that you would have been called . Heraldry was not generally used in either Russia or Granada during your period--the only heraldry we've found in those places was imported from other countries. Heraldic arms were invented in northwestern France in the mid-12th century. By the 13th century, heraldry was used in most of Christian Western Europe but not much beyond it. We've seen no evidence that European heraldry was used in Muslim Spain, and Russia did not develop its own heraldry until the 19th century. Thus it is most likely that you would not have used armory. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/nonheraldic.html The design you've developed isn't completely consistent with medieval heraldic practice--in particular, it is very rare to divide a shield into two tinctures and put different charges on each half of the field. In addition, the upside-down triangle you describe isn't found in heraldry except in a few 16th-century examples. Finally, the scallop is a fairly common charge in medieval heraldry, but it is drawn with the convex side facing outward so that a pearl inside would be hidden inside the shell. If you decide to use arms, then we suggest that you use either wyverns or scallops (without pearls) in your design, but not both, and that you avoid the upside-down triangle motif. To summarize all of this: we recommend that you use the name or one of the forms we were able to document to around the 13th century. If you wish to use arms, we also recommend that you make some changes to your proposed design so that you use a different division of the field and only one type of heraldic charge. Walraven van Nijmegen, Juliana de Luna, Talorgen nei Wrguist, Caterine de Benet, Mari Elsbeth nic Bryan, Paul Wickenden of Thanet, Justin Greywolf, Adelaide, Barak Raz, Pedro de Alcazar, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn contributed to this letter. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Your servant, Alan Fairfax Academy of S. Gabriel November 19, 1999 (1) Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names." (WWW: SCA, 1997) Accessed October 27, 1999. [URL: http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/] (2) ibid. (3) ibid. (4) Talan Gwynek, "A Glossary of the Personal Names in Diez Melcon's _Apellidos Castellano-Leoneses_", Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings (SCA: Chicago, 1993).