ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1913 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1913 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 23 Jan 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if and (possibly ) were used as French feminine and masculine names in the 16th century. You also wanted to know if in England at the same time it was commmon to name children after times of the year or natural events. Here is the information we have found. We were unable to find anything like or in our French name sources. Because you say you only have a hand-written reference to it, it is possible that is a mangling of a different name. The most similar name we found is , which appears as in 13th century Artois. [5] However, we have no evidence that this name was used in the 16th century, so recommend that you do not use it. appears to be a form of , which is French for "an unmarried woman of good family; the daughter of noble parents," usually used as a title. [1] We would not be surprised, however, to see as a given name in the 13th century, which was a period of notable innovation in feminine naming. We do not recommend it for the 16th century, though; by that period, most of the fanciful names used in the 13th century were no longer in use. Unfortunately, our on-line sources for late-period French given names are pretty slim; we can recommend the following articles, though, if you would like to consider different names: "Late Period Feminine Names from the South of France" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/latefrenchfem/ "Names from Bordeaux Commercial Documents, 1470-1520" http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/bordeaux.html "16th Century Norman Names" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/cateline/norman16.html The practice of using the names of some holidays as given names was not uncommon in medieval England. (from a Latin name for Easter) and (from an alternate name for Epiphany) are all found in the 13th century and survived to modern times. Examples in your period include 1542, 1608, 15th C., all feminine. and are also found from the 13th century to the present, used as both masculine and feminine names. [2] Children were also undoubtedly named for a saint when they were born on that saint's feast day, (or, for important saints, probably when they were born close to it). However, the use of the names of months and seasons as given names is a modern practice in England, [3] and we find no evidence that the names of natural events (e.g. , ) were used as given names in period either. 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 Adelaide de Beaumont, Arval Benicoeur, Pedro de Alcazar, Talan Gwynek, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 23Jan00 --------------------------------------- References: [1] _Dictionnaire de l'Adade/mie franc,aise_, 1798 edition., ed. Mark Olsen, published by the ARTFL Project, Univ. of Chicago. http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/ARTFL/projects/dicos/ accessed 3 Jan 1999. [2] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.nn. Christmas, Pentecost, Easter, Pascoe, Theophania. [3] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983). s.n. April, where there is a good discussion of this question, but note that Reaney & Wilson s.n. May shows as a medieval pet form for . [4] [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.n. May [5] Bougard, Pierre, and Maurits Gysseling, _L'Impot Royal en Artois (1295-1302): Ro^les du 100e et du 50e pre/sente/s et publie/s avec une table anthroponymique, Me/moires de la Commission Royale de Toponymie et de Dialectologie #13 (Louvain: Imprimerie Orientaliste, B.P. 41, 1970).