ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1886 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1886 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 14 Dec 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help finding Welsh feminine names that were used between 500 and 800 and sounded like your given name, . You also wanted to know if would be appropriate. Here is a brief letter with the information we have found. The language spoken in Wales in your period, Old Welsh, differed quite a bit from what was spoken from about 1200 on, known as medieval Welsh, or what is currently spoken today, modern Welsh. For information on how the language and naming practices differed between Old Welsh and medieval Welsh, we suggest you read the following article available in our library: "The First Thousand Years of British Names" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/british1000/ We could not find in any of our sources. The closest we found was , a Cornish name found in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries [1,2]. The Puritans used , , and in the sixteenth century. [3,4] We have no evidence that it was used in Welsh, or as early as your period, and so recommend that you consider a different name. A similar Welsh name that might interest you is . It is the name of a daughter of the 5th century king Brychan Brycheiniog, though the first time we see it recorded is many centuries later. We believe it would be a possible name for your period; because we have limited sources on early Welsh names, it is hard to say if this name was used by people other than this legendary character. However, since we have evidence that the name was used by this one person, and that other names of Brychan's children remained in use throughout the Middle Ages, we believe this is a fine choice. [6] Other Welsh names that we found beginning with M are: [5] Madrun Mair Marchell Meddfyl Meddwid Meddyf Medlan Medwyl Melangell Morfudd Mwynwen Myfanwy These are the late period or modern spellings of the names; if you would be interested in knowing the correct Old Welsh forms for amu pf these names, please write us again and let us know which you are interested in. You should be warned, though--the Old Welsh spelling may be very different from the modern forms listed above. 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 Raquel Bueneventura, Arval Benicoeur, and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael December 14, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.n. Melior(a) [2] Nicolaa de Bracton, "A Statistical Survey of Given Names in Essex Co., England, 1182-1272", Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings 1995 (SCA Inc.) [3] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling. The New American Dictionary of First Names (New York: Signet Books, 1983). s.n. Meliora [4] Bardsley, Charles Wareing. Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1970). [5] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "A Welsh Miscellany", _Compleat Anachronist_ #66 (Milpitas, CA: SCA, Inc.). [6] Bartrum, P.C., _Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966).