ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1845 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1845 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 6 Dec 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an authentic 13th century Frenchman's name. You were also interested in arms using "Per fess and per pale," and wanted to know how charges would be distributed on such a field. Here is the information we have found. and are found in Paris in 1292. [1] In 13th century Picardy, was by far the most common man's name; it was also common through all northern France. [4,5,6,7] Both and are fine given names for your period. Double given names like are common in modern France, but were extremely rare in French in your period. They were more common in Provenc,al, the medieval language spoken in the southern half of the area of modern France, but didn't spread into the north until after our period. We suggest that you use or , but not both in the same name. was originally the name of an island. [2] (The slash represents an accent over the previous letter.) The surname would mean "of the island namd ." Either or is a fine choice for your name. We have found very few period arms with fields "Per fess and in chief per pale," and none in France. Most of the examples we found, in Germany, were uncharged and appeared actually to be arms with a plain field and a chief divided "per pale" [3]. We recommend that you consider another design, as this one doesn't fit the culture you're trying to re-create. 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, Blaise de Cormeilles, Rouland Carre, Zenobia Naphtali, and Arval Benicoeur For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael December 6, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997) [URL:http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html]. [2] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987). [3]Siebmacher, Johann, _Johann Siebmachers Wappenbuch von 1605_, 2 vols., ed. Horst Appuhn (Dortmund: Harenberg, 1988, 1989). [4] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). [5] Gysseling, Maurits, and Pierre Bougard, _L'Onomastique Calaisienne a la Fin du 13e Siecle_, Onomastica Neerlandica (Leuven: Institut voor Naamkunde, 1963). [6] Bougard, Pierre, and Maurits Gysseling, _L'Impot Royal en Artois (1295-1302): Ro^les du 100e et du 50e pre/sente/s et publie/s avec une table anthroponymique, Me/moires de la Commission Royale de Toponymie et de Dialectologie #13 (Louvain: Imprimerie Orientaliste, B.P. 41, 1970). [7] Jacobsson, Harry, _E/tudes d'Anthroponymie Lorraine les Bans de Tre/fonds de Metz (1267-1298)_ (Go:teborg: Gumperts Fo:rlag, 1955).