ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1969
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1969
************************************

From: "Braddon Giles" 
23 May 2000

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You wrote to us concerning a name for a Scoto-Norman woman from the
12th century.  Of most interest to you were the given names
<Michaela>, <Matilda> or <Margaret>, and the surnames <de Lench>,
<de Sancler> or <de Haya>.  Here is what we found.

We have relatively few documentary sources from 12th century
Scotland.  Those that survive are mostly in Latin, with a few in
Anglo-Norman French. Latin forms rarely represent the way that
people pronounced their names at the time (for example, Latin
<Matildis> probably is a written form of the vernacular
<Metylda>).

We have not found the name <Michaela> used in Scotland near your
period at all.  However, we have found several versions of your
other options just after your period [1]:

     Margaret 1340
     Margareta 1261
     Margarete 1296

     Matildis 1243
     Metylda 1348
     Maut 1296

These names were already in use in England in the 11th and 12th
century, so we believe it likely that a Scoto-Norman woman could
have used them as well.  Queen Margaret of Scotland (circa 1046-93)
is usually credited with popularizing or even introducing her name
in both Scotland and England [2].

<de Lench> is an English name, which we found in 1208 <de Lench'>
and 1327 as <de Lench> [3].  We could not find any use of this name
in Scotland.  Both <de Sancler> and <de Haya> are to be found in
Scotland from at least the 13th century [4], for example <Seincler>
1261, <Seintclerk> 1296, <de Haya> in 1178-82 and <de Haia> around
1206-11 [5].

Any combination of the listed given names and either <de Sancler>
or <de Haya> for a surname would fit your culture perfectly.  Two
examples could be <Margareta de Haya> or <Metylda de Sancler>.

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 Juliana de
Luna, Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Maridonna Benvenuti and
Arval d'Espas Nord.

For the Academy,


Giles Leabrook.

23 / May / 2000

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Bibliography.

[1] Talan Gwynek, "A List of Feminine Personal Names found in
Scottish Records" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996)

     http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/scottishfem/

[2] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian
Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988); s.nn.
Margaret, Matilda.

[3] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English
Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995),
s.n. Lench.

[4] Symon Freser of Lovat, "13th & 14th Century Scottish Names"
(WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996).

     http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/symonFreser/scottish14/

[5] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin,
Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library,
1986), s.nn. Hay, Sinclair.