ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2069 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2069 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 17 Jun 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help creating a feminine name that would be appropriate for a 2nd generation conversa living in the 16th century, and said you were interested in the given names and and the surname . You also wanted to know if Sephardim living in this period used middle names. Here is the information we have found. Though conversos were of Jewish ancestry, their public names usually followed Christian customs and were the same sort of names as used by their neighbors. Therefore, we will be discussing your name in terms of what would have been appropriate for a Spanish Christian living in your period. was not a common name, but we find it in the 14th and 16th centuries. [1,3] It is a reasonable choice for your given name. As far as we can tell, is a post-period invention, in any culture. However, we do have one example of someone named who was made Duchess of Toledo in the late 16th century. [2] (The slash represents an accent over the previous letter.) Therefore, would be a possible choice for your given name as well. The widespread use of middle names in Spanish is an 18th century phenomenon. In period, only a small percentage of the highest nobility had a middle name. We have no evidence that Sephardic women used middle names in period; we recommend that you use either or , but not both. The surname is from the Spanish masculine given name , from the Latin , 'wolf.' We find the surname in the 15th and 16th centuries spelled as and . [4] In the case of a conversa named or , however, the surname is probably not an actual inherited surname, but a surname deriving from the patron at baptism in the previous generation. is the name of a place that we find in the 15th century spelled as , , and . [4] , meaning "from the light colored caves," is a fine choice for your surname. While the practice of using two surnames was never very common, we do have examples of the style , and therefore feel that would be a fine combination. 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 Isfael ap Briafael, Raquel Buenaventura, Juliana de Luna, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Julie Stampnitzky, Mari neyn Brian, Arval Benicoeur, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, June 17, 2000 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Elsbeth Anne Roth, _16th-century Spanish Women's Names_ (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1998) [URL:http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/spanish.html]. [2] De Atienza, Julio, _Nobiliario Espan~ol_ (Madrid: Aguilar SA de Ediciones, 1954). p. 780 [3] Carrasco Pe/rez, Juan _La Poblacio'n de Navarra en el Siglo XIV_ (Pamplona, Spain: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, S.A, 1973). p. 232 [4] Juliana de Luna, "Spanish Names from the Late 15th Century" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999-2000) [URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/juliana/isabella/].