ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1958 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1958 ************************************ From: "Braddon Giles" 5 Mar 2000 Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You wrote to us asking about an authentic Old Norse or Icelandic masculine name for the period 1000 to 1150. Your suggestion was , for a widely-travelled Viking with Scottish connections. This is what we have found. While all names are words, not all words are names. Modern English speakers are willing to name their children from a wide variety of sources, but this was not the practice for Vikings. In Old Norse does indeed mean 'mountain, cliff or fell'; however, it was not used as a given name by itself. There were given names with as the first element but they were all after your period. The closest name we have found in your time is the similar but apparently unrelated from Greenland around 1020 [1]. The basic structure of your name, a given name plus a byname that identifies his father, is one of the most common patterns of naming in Viking records. Some people were also known by a descriptive nickname which could be placed after the given name or prefixed to it. has been used as a prefix byname, for example in the name from around 1000 [2]. This nickname does not seem to have been used after the given name. Sources from your period use instead of for ; is a later spelling [3]. Although it would be appropriate to use this prefix byname with any Norse masculine given name of the time, it was usually followed by one of the shorter ones. Your patronymic, , needs just a little grammatical repair to be just fine. The given name that it is based on, , was quite common in Iceland and was also found in Norway at least by the 11th century; the first Norwegian example we have is [4]. There are two rune stones that were raised by men called [5]. This is the Old Norse name that gave rise to the Gaelic patronymic , so it is an ideal choice for a link with Scotland [6]. is the nominative form of the name, i.e. the one used as the subject of a sentence or in direct address. In a patronymic, you need the genitive (possessive) form, , in the same way that is the genitive form of . The full patronymic is properly , or less commonly . The slash represents an acute accent over the preceding letter. We can suggest several names that might appeal to you. Choosing any Viking given name and adding as a prefix nickname would just fine for your requirements. For example, as young grows into a big man, he might be called , especially for distinction if there is another man called around. This name is pronounced \FYAHL-lah-STAIN LYOATS-sohn\. When combined with the given names , , and <{TH}orkell>, for instance, it produces the combinations , , and respectively. If that doesn't appeal to you, then would also be an authentic choice, pronounced \FAHL-gair LYOATS-sohn\. We have shown these names in Latin letters. The Vikings wrote in runes; if you'd like to know the runic spelling of your name, please write to us again. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write to 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Lindorm Eriksson, Hartmann Rogge, Jehan le filz Gilbert, Talan Gwynek and Arval d'Espas Nord. For the Academy, Giles Leabrook. 05/Mar/2000 ________________________________________ Bibliography. [1] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). [2] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931); s.n. . [3] The in both and can be represented with an , like . We recommend that you use or consistently when you write your name, not both in the same signature, and that is most authentic for your period. Similarly, the first in is best represented as a - . [4] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931); s.n. . [5] raised runestone U 1016$ in memory of his sons in the begining of the 11th century, and erected U 1132 in memory of his father and mother. Uppsala University Department for Scandinavian Languages, _Samnordisk tuntextdatabas_ (WWW: Uppsala universitet, 29 Oct 1997). http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm [6] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986); s.n. Macleod.