ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1884 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1884 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 20 Dec 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if the feminine name was used in any of the Balkan lands in the 14th or 15th century. Here is the information we have found. The closest name we could find to is a Russian masculine name 13-14th c. [1]. We believe that that is from the name ; the switch in Russian is pretty reasonable. [1] We did not find any Slavic feminine forms of , nor any other name that might lead to . We also have found no reason to believe that is related to or to any word meaning "gold." However, we did find an Italian feminine name ; while this is not a Slavic name, north-east Italy isn't that far from your area of interest, and the Italians held lands in the northwest Balkans populated by Slavs. The name dates back to Greek origin, by way of Latin. Though its popularity came from its use in Torquato Tasso's _Gerusalemme Liberta_, published in 1581 [4], it is possible that was used as a rare name in your period. As an alternative, you might be interested in choosing a surname derived from the word . We found two Polish surnames that are derived from the Polish name for the spice saffron: 1401 and 1518. [2,3] These surnames would most likely have been used by someone who was a spice merchant, particularly of saffron. If you are interested in this possibility, let us know and we can direct you to sources for choosing a Polish given name to go with it. 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, Maridonna Benvenuti, Walraven van Nijmegen, Arval Benicoeur, Amant le Marinier, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael December 20, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1996) [URL:http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/]. [2] Hoffman, William F., _Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings_, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Polish Genealogical Society of America, 1997). [3] Rymut, Kazimierz, _Nazwiska Polakow_ (Wroclaw: Zaklad Narodowy im. Ossolinskich - Wydawnictwo, 1991). [4] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei Nomi Italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan, 1992). s.n. Sofronio