ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1820 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1820 ************************************ 29 Nov 1999 From: Alan Terlep Greetings, Here's the information we found about the name , which you wanted to use as a name for a German woman living between 1000 and 1100. The most common German form of is , which first came into use sometime in the 1100s. We didn't find any place called , so we did some research on the name of the city , which is the closest match we found. Based on our information, we can recommend the names or for the period between 1150 and 1300. Your given name derives from the name of S. Mary Magdalene. Mary Madgalene's popularity began to increase in the mid-11th century, when the abbey of Vezelay in Provence first claimed to have her relics in their church, and also spread the story that she had travelled to Provence before she died. Vezelay became an increasingly popular pilgrimage site during the 1100s, and S. Mary Magdalene became an increasingly popular namesake in countries throughout western Europe. (1) The specific form that you mentioned is unusual--we didn't find any examples of this specific spelling at all. It is plausible for the Occitan language (which is spoken in southern France), where we found an example of the similar spelling in 1528. (2) However, we haven't seen any evidence that the form or any very similar form would be used in German. The most common German form is , which is dated in German to sometime between 1150 and 1200. (3) could conceivably have been used in German as early as 1100, but we would be extremely surprised to see it before then. We didn't find any record of a town called , but we did find a modern German city called . This is the closest match to the name you asked about. However, during your period the city was generally called ; (4) we found that this name ( or ) was used as late as 1395. (5) During your period, bynames are actually fairly unusual--many, perhaps most, people would be known by just a single given name. However, we did find a number of bynames using and a place-name that in records from the year 1063. (6) So, a name like would be appropriate for your period. To summarize, we don't think that any form of would be appropriate for the period from 1000 to 1100, but or would be an excellent choice for a somewhat later period, between 1150 and 1400. Mari Elsbeth nic Bryan, Raquel Buenaventura, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, 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 29, 1999 (1) Attwater, Donald and Herbert Thurston. _Butler's Lives of the Saints_ (New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1958), s.n. Mary Magdalene (2) Scott, Brian. "Late Period Feminine Names from the South of France" (WWW: Josh Mittleman, 1999) Accessed November 3, 1999. [URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/latefrenchfem/] (3) Socin, Adolf, _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts_ (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966), 91. (4) Bethel, John P., ed., _Webster's Geographical Dictionary_ (Springfield, Massachusetts: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1969), s.n. Speyer (5) Schwarz, Ernst, _Deutsche Namenforschung. I: Ruf- und Familiennamen_ (Goettingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1949), s.n. Speier. (6) Socin, p. 246.