ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1856 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1856 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 5 Dec 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an acceptable variant of the Dutch feminine name , used between 1300 and 1600. Here is the information we have found. Diminutive forms of are recorded in Dutch from the 13th century onward [1]. Other diminutive forms of name that we found, from and from (via ) [2], lead us to believe that or is a possible diminutive of . Switching from to is routine in period Dutch. While was the most common spelling of the diminutive, we did also found and . The first two are pronounced identically, like \mar-EYE-kuh\, where the middle syllable is pronounced like a diphthong formed by the vowel in followed immediately by the one in , halfway between and the vowel sound in ; but the last has a somewhat different pronunciation. We did not find in any of our sources. 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, Arval Benicoeur, and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael December 5, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1]Debrabandere. _Kortrijkse Naamkunde 1200-1300, met een kumulatief familienamenregister_ (Anthrophonymica XXII, Leuven, 1980). [2]Van der Velden, G. M., _Het Oudste Cijnregister van de Abdij van Berne uit 1376_ ('s-Hertogenbosch: 1982).