ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1806 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1806 ************************************ 23 Dec 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Frenchman living in the 1500s. Here is what we have found. It appears that you have contacted us on behalf of a friend. If this request has been for your own education, please excuse this assumption. We prefer to work directly with the client in order to minimize the chances of any mis-interpretation when information is passed through a second party. If this request is for a client who has e-mail or web access, we can provide further help to the client if s/he asks us directly. If not, thank you for passing the query along. First, we need to discuss the nature of language in Flemish areas (the source for the article about Bruges that you examined). The medieval County of Flanders is only one of several provinces that were incorporated into modern Belgium. During the 16th century, residents of this area spoke both French and Dutch. Therefore, both French and Dutch forms are found in 15th and 16th century Bruges. is a French form, which appears in Flemish areas as well. [1],[2] At the same time, other French spellings of this name are found in Flemish areas, including , , and . The Dutch version of the name at that time in Flemish areas was or .[2] appears as a surname in the Flemish area, but not with . is a Dutch byname meaning 'fat.'[2] A Dutch byname would not use the French construction 'of the.' This particular byname does not need either a preposition or article, but if it did, they would be in Dutch as well, as in the example . In most period cultures, languages are not mixed in names, so that a single indivdual would have a Dutch name or a French name. However, in Bruges we find individuals with French given names and Dutch surnames, like .[2] Thus, is a possible name for someone living in Bruges. If you are a Frenchman living in France, you would have a completely French name. The French equivalent to is 'the fat.'[3]. The French used mostly inherited surnames in the 16th century, so a person with a surname would not necessarily be fat, anymore than you would expect someone with the surname to be a blacksmith. If you want to use a French surname that sounds like , we recommend that you consider , a French locative surname referring to a place near Calais.[4] For a Frenchman living in France, we recommend or , which would be pronounced \LOO-ee l@ GROH\ and \LOO-ee d@ lah GRWEZ\ respectively. Note that the period pronunciation is not the same as the modern French. If you were Flemish, however, you could have a totally French name like , a name which mixes French and Dutch elements like (pronounced \LOO-ee GHROOS\), or a totally Dutch name like (pronounced \LOH-d@-vayk GHROOS\). [5] We would be remiss to not note that "Louis the Fat" was the name of a king of France (reigned 1108-1137). While the name 'the fat' is quite generic, you may have difficulty registering . However, this should not present a problem for . 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 Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Maridonna Benvenuti, Adelaide de Beaumont, Barak Raz, Alan Fairfax, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, and Walraven van Nijmegen For the Academy, Juliana de Luna 23 December 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] 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]. [2] Luana de Grood, "Flemish Given Names from Bruges, 1400-1600", (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996) [URL:http://www.s-gabriel.org/docs/bruges/]. [3] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), (s.n. Gros). [4] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963). [5] \ay\ should actually be \&I\, a diphthong not normally found in English. It's about halfway between the vowels of and : start out saying a vowel in the range from to and then move toward \ee\. The \v\ is *very* lightly articulated: the upper teeth just touch the lower lip, and there's no friction. \gh\ is the voiced version of \kh\ , which is the harsh, rasping "ch" sound in Scottish loch or German Bach.