ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1981 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1981 ************************************ 23 Mar 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 7th century Cornish/Irish or Welsh cleric; and how plausible that and other forms of are in these cultures. Here is what we have found. You wrote that you want to register this name. Before I start, I'd like to clarify the service that the Academy offers. We try to help Societyfolk in choosing and using names that fit the historical cultures they are trying to re-create. Our research can sometimes be used to support submissions to the College of Arms, but that is not our goal and our results are often incompatible with the College's needs. If your main goal is to register a particular name, then we may not be able to help you. The Welsh, Irish, and Cornish were different nations in our period, with different languages and different naming customs. Welsh and Cornish were closely-related languages, and their naming customs overlapped considerably. Gaelic, the language of Ireland, was quite different from either of these, used a different spelling system, and had very different naming practices. In order to choose an authentic name, you'll need to focus on one culture at a time. Unfortunately, we have relatively little information on 7th century names in any of these cultures. Few records survive from that early period. Those that do tell us that the languages used in these areas of the British Isles were substantially different from their modern forms. Constructing an authentic name in any of these languages requires considerable expert knowledge and careful work. We'll cover some of the possibilities in this letter, but we may not cover all the ones that interest you. Please don't hesitate to write us again. There is archaeological evidence of Irish settlements in northeastern Cornwall in the late 5th and 6th centuries [1]. There are eight names in surviving inscriptions from those settlements, all recorded in Latinized genitive forms [2]: Irish-origin names DVNOCATI (early 6th c.) MESCAGNI (early 6th c.) QVENATAVCI (mid to late 6th c.) VLCAGNI (late 5th c.) MACCODECHETI (late 6th or early 7th c.) Latin-origin names INGENVI (late 5th early 6th c.) LATINI (late 6th c.) IVSTI (late 6th early 7th Since you're interested in , a name transmitted to Britain via Latin, we'll focus on the second category. A larger variety of Latin-derived names is recorded in Cornwall in the early 10th century. These include Old and New Testament names as well as Latin-origin names [3]: Old or New Testament Latin-origin names Abel Augustinus, Austius Beniam(m)en Benedic Dauid, Deui Custentin Eli(e) Electus Isaac Eusebi Iesu Germanus Iohann Gestin Iosep Iustus Noe Magnus Samuel Prudens Salaman Puer doesn't appear on these lists, and we have found no other evidence that any form of it was used in the British Isles in your period. It doesn't appear in English records until around 1200 [4]. It may be that the saint simply wasn't known in Britain that early: His cult became popular in France only in the 9th century [8]. We can suggest an alternative, though not a very good one. The name or is also absent from early British records, but it appears in Brittany and France in the 9th century [5, 6], and there was considerable commerce between Brittany and Cornwall in your period. Transplanting the name two centuries earlier takes a considerable amount of speculation, of course, but it is a possibility. We can't recommend as a nickname for your period and culture. Evidence from your period of how such nicknames were formed and how they were spelled is scant; but our best guess is that this form is unlikely. The name of the river is recorded quite early: c.650, probably in Latin; 980-8 and 1018, probably in Anglo-Saxon [7]. We don't have enough evidence to say whether a river-name would have been used as a surname in Cornish in your period. In Latin (the written language of your period), we believe it would have appeared as . We should stress that we've made a lot of guesses in this discussion. The best we can say is that the name is not entirely implausible for 7th century Cornwall and is not inconsistent with the examples of Irish/Cornish names from that period. 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl vz Morgant Glasvryn, Amant le Marinier,and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 23 Mar 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Wakelin, Martyn F., "The Irish in Cornwall" in _Language and History in Cornwall_ (Leicester University Press, 1975), p.52. [2] Jackson, Kenneth, __Language and history in early Britain; a chronological survey of the Brittonic languages, first to twelfth century A.D._ (Edinburgh, University Press, 1953). [3] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Cornish (and Other) Personal Names from the 10th Century Bodmin Manumissions" in Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings, Uppsala (SCA, Inc.: 1999). [4] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Christopher. [5] De Courson, M. Aure/lien, _Cartulaire de L'Abbaye de Redon en Bretagne_ (Paris: Imprimerie Imperiale, 1963). [6] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_ (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972). [7] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), s.n. Tamar. [8] "St. Christopher", _The Catholic Encyclopedia_ (WWW: Kevin Knight, 2000), http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03728a.htm [Accessed 16 Mar 2000].