ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1858
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1858
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From: "Sara L Friedemann" 
22 Nov 1999

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You wanted to know if either <La Petit Cygnette> or <de Cygne> was used as
women's nicknames during the SCA period.  Here is the information we have
found.

You suggested <La Petit Cygnette> 'the little (female) swan' on the basis of
the nickname <La Petit Hoeyl> 'the little ewe', which you found in a list of
late-period names from the south of France. [1] There are a few problems
with this, however.

First, the translation 'the little ewe' is conjectural; we aren't sure that
<hoeyl> is intended to represent Provenc,al <oelha> 'ewe', so we aren't sure
that the translation is correct.  Secondly, we can find no evidence for a
feminine diminutive <cygnette> of <cygne> 'swan'.  Finally, if it did exist,
it would be feminine, and the adjective would be <petite>.  (We don't know
why the masculine form is used in <La Petit Hoeyl>; it may simply be a
scribal error.)

There is also a possible problem of another kind: this was the nickname of a
prostitute.  We don't know whether nicknames of this type were particularly
associated with prostitutes or not, but you might want to take this
possibility into account.

However we have found other examples of nicknames formed from animal
characteristics, such as <Coldeboeuf> "ox-neck."  We also know of a literary
character known as <le Chisne> "the swan," <chisne> being one of several Old
French spellings of the word. [2,3]  Based on these, we believe that <la
Cygne> would be an appropriate French surname for a woman in the 13th or
14th century; the modern spelling <cygne> was in used by the 13th century.
Other spellings used that time are <cisne>, <chisne>, and <cine>.  <Col de
Cygne> "swan-neck" is also a possible byname, based on the example of
<Coldeboeuf>.  We have no indication that <cygnette> existed in medieval
French.

For a selection of given names appropriate for this period, we recommend
that you look at the 1292 Census of Paris, available on the web at:

http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html

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 Arval
Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Raquel Buenaventura.

For the Academy,
~Aryanhwy merch Catmael
    November 22, 1999

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References:

[1] Talan Gwynek, "Late Period Feminine Names from the South of France"
(WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999)
[URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/latefrenchfem/].

[2] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et
Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987). s.n. Coldeboeuf

[3] Langlois, Ernest, _Table des Noms Propres de toute nature compris dan
les Chansons de Geste_ (New York: Burt Franklin, 1971 [1904]).