ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1912 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1912 ************************************ 16 Jan 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked several followup questions to our previous letter [1]: whether and are interchangeable as mid-13th century Frisian surnames, and whether is an appropriate given name for that culture. Here is what we have found. While we can't be completely certain, we believe that either spelling of your surname is appropriate for your period. The earliest examples we found of and are from the late 14th century, by which time they seem to have been interchangeable. We found an approximately analogous case where 'm' and 'n' are interchanged a little earlier: the late 13th century which appears in 1400 as [2]. We can't place in Frisia in your period, but we think it was probably used there in some form, though probably not in this spelling. The name derives from an earlier that was common to several western Germanic languages. It was recorded in Germany as and the possessive form in 1293 and 1361 and as 1387, and was particularly common in Hamburg, Lu"beck, and Rostock in the second half of the 13th century [3]. Various forms of the name are recorded in northern France and the southern Lowlands, including 997 [4]. With examples from the east and south of Friesland, we think it likely that some form of the name was used there, too. Unfortunately, we aren't sure what the Frisian form of the name is likely to have been. is more common than in our medieval examples of Frisian name, but not so much so that we can unequivocally recommend one over the other. The second element of the name might have become <-rad> or <-rat> in 13th century Frisian: We found 1242 but also 1231, 1160, and 1248 [2]. Based on the small amount of data we have, the best we can say is that , , , and are all possible. appears to be inappropriate for 13th century Frisian. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 16 Jan 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Academy of Saint Gabriel report 1795 http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?1795 [2] Stark, Franz, _Die Kosenamen der Germanen_ (Wiesbaden: Dr. Martin Sa:ndig oHG., 1967 [1868]). [3] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutsches Namenlexikon : Familien- und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklaert_ (Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985, 1990), s.n. Vollrath. [4] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, v.1 (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972).