ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1889 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1889 ************************************ 20 Jan 2000 From: Alan Terlep Greetings, Here's the information we found on and on a last name meaning "fair" that you wanted to use for a French woman living between 1200 and 1500. We also have comments on your arms, "Argent, two axes crossed in saltire sable, on a chief azure three mullets of four points Or." As you said, is a French name in your period. is a later form of , the name of a 5th-century woman who became the patron saint of Paris. We found and also , another form of the same name, in a census of Paris from 1292. (1) Either form would be appropriate for your period. We haven't found examples of or from outside Paris during your period, and we suspect that they are primarily Parisian names. There is no French word that means both "beautiful" and "light-haired/ light-skinned." However, we found a number of French names from your period that mean either "fair (pale)" or "fair (beautiful)." The majority of examples we found come from mens' names, although we did find some names of women as well. We found a number of French women's names that were recorded during the period you're interested in. (2) We've included variant forms of each name and the century or centuries in which at least one example of each variant was found. Some of the names and forms found in one century might have been used in other parts of the period you're interested in. We didn't try to track down specific information on all of the names we found, but if you're particularly interested in one or two of the names in this list we can look for more specific information about it. Belete 1256, 1311 beautiful la Cointe 1459-60 pretty, graceful la Blonde 1324 blond Blondele 1256, 1311 blond la Blanche 1404 white We found other forms of these names that were used by men in your period: le Bel 1250-1359 beautiful Belot 1384, 1438 Jolif 1320 cute Joly 1340-1461 Blondel 1311-1438 Blondelet 1384-6 Blondin 1320 Blanchet 1435 white Quenu 1427 white-haired We can suggest a number of feminine names that are derived from the masculine names in that list, including: la Bele (early 13th C), Belle (late 13th and after) beautiful la Belote (up to the mid-14th C), Belotte (later) Blondele (up to the mid-14th C), Blondelle (later) blond Blondelete (up to the mid-14th C) Blondine (for your whole period) Blanchete (up to the mid-14th C), Blanchette (later) white Quenue (a Norman or Picard form) white-haired Chenue (elsewhere in northern France) Your design for your arms is almost perfect for the later part of your period, as long as you use six-pointed mullets. If wish to have arms that are appropriate for an earlier period, we recommend some changes. We recommend six-pointed mullets over four-pointed ones. In French heraldry mullets almost always have six points, while four-pointed mullets are almost unknown in medieval heraldry. Beyond that, your arms are more likely for the later part of your period than the earlier. Heraldry earlier in period was generally more simple. If you want arms that are typical for the 1200s, you could use * Argent, three axes sable * Argent, three axes in chief sable. For the 1300s, you might consider something like "Argent, two axes crossed in saltire and in chief three mullets of six points sable." For a later period, such as the 1400s, your original design is historically accurate if you use six-pointed mullets. Although there are a number of medieval coats of arms that use two axes crossed in saltire, this design is much more common in the SCA than it was in the Middle Ages. If you would like a more distinctive design, you might want to consider using "Argent, three axes sable, on a chief azure three mullets of six points Or." We checked these designs for conflict with SCA armory, and found none. Walraven van Nijmegen, Amant le Marinier, Juliana de Luna, Rouland Carre, Adelaide de Beaumont, Miguel Santos de Borja, Giles Leabrook, Blaise de Cormeilles, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Elsbeth Anne Roth contributed to this letter. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Your servant, Alan Fairfax Academy of S. Gabriel January 20, 2000 (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) Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967), 186-189.