ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1809 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1809 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 6 Dec 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know what the appropriate form of would have been used by a Anglo-Saxon man at the time of the Conquest. Here is the information we have found. The name <{TH}eodric> was originally of Continental German origin, but was adopted into Old English fairly early on. [1,2,3] The {TH} represents the letter , which looks like a and a

superimposed over each other; at the beginning of a word it is pronounced like in , a sound that we represent by \th\. We have a number of examples of this name: the Latin forms , , and , in 1084 and 1086. These may be from the Continental German , but it is also possible that these are instances of the Old English name. [1,4] We also found the spelling <{DH}idric> in 1087-1100 [1]; here {DH} represents the letter , which looks like a with a dash through the straight line. In this name, t is pronounced like the letter thorn. The Latin word for "scholar" that was used in your period was . [5] Because the majority of the records from your period were written in Latin, in such a record both your forename and byname would very likely have been Latinized; a number of the forms listed above of show this Latinization. The name is a documentary Latin version of a fine Old English name. In a purely English record from before the Conquest, this might have been found as ; means "the wise" and is found in the 11th century. [4] We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael December 6, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Ekwall, Eilert. Early London Personal Names (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1947); p.66. [2] Forssner, Thorvald, _Continental-Germanic Personal Names in England in Old and Middle English Times_ (Uppsala: K.W. Appelbergs Boktryckeri, 1916). [3] Feilitzen, O. von, _The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book_ (Uppsala: 1937). [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.nn. Terrey, Wise [5] Latham, R.E., _Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources_ (London: British Academy, 1965).