ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2082 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2082 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 16 Jun 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an Englishman living between 1050 and 1450. If not, you asked whether a French translation of "grey thorn" would work, and said that mixing languages wouldn't bother you since it could be attributed to mixed nationality. Here is what we have found. The name originated in medieval French romances, and it was used as a personal name in French as early as the late 12th century [1, 2]. However, this form of the name was not used in England in your period; there the name became and continued in use with minor variation to the end of our period [1, 3, 4]. If you want an English name, we strongly recommend rather than . If you prefer , then we suggest you consider a French persona. We think is an unlikely English surname. English surnames built upon the element <-thorn> were originally place names that referred to a thorn-bush or hawthorn tree that was a local landmark [5]. We find examples like 1246 for a tall tree, c.1215 or 1227 for "Briddel's thorn-bush", 1246 for "Sighulf's thorn-bush", and so on [6]. We find no example of <-thorn> compounded with a color adjective [7]. We did find , from an Old English phrase meaning "grey tree" [5], so we can't say that is impossible; but we do not think it is a likely construction and we recommend you choose a different surname. However, we can find no justification at all for the spelling [9]. and would not have been pronounced the same in Middle English. Translating the phrase to Old French [8] doesn't help: "grey thorn" doesn't work as a place name in French any more than it does in English. If you'd like our help choosing a different surname, let us know. We thought you might be interested in one name that we encountered: , a place name recorded as early as c.1170 in Yorkshire North Riding [6]. It doesn't mean "grey thorn", but it sounds similar. or would be a fine name for your period. Please note that mixed nationality actually does not justify a mixed language name. Names in your period were rarely recorded in a mixture of languages, and mixed-language names were probably almost never used in conversation. A man was identified in the language of the person who was identifying him, regardless of his own background or language. If a man traveled, then his new neighbors would adapt his name to their own language and naming customs. For example, the 14th century English adventurer Sir John Hawkwood was known to his employers in Florence as . They translated his given name into Italian, since they knew that and were forms of the same Latin name; and they transformed his surname into a similar-sounding Italian word. They might just as easily have called him "Giovanni the Englishman". 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 Maridonna Benvenuti, Juliana de Luna, Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, and Blaise de Cormeilles. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 16 Jun 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Tristan. [2] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html [3] Reaney, P.H., & R.M. Wilson. A Dictionary of English Surnames (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995); s.n. Tristram. [4] Bardsley, Charles W. A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980); s.n. Tristram. [5] Smith, A.H., _English Place-Name Elements_ (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1956), s.vv. {th}orn, gr{ae}g(1) [6] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), s.nn. Langthorne, Burston, Sigglesthorne, Crathorn. [7] The modern surname is derived from the full name of a different type of tree, the blackthorn. There is no tree called a "greythorn". [8] Greimas, Algirdas Julien, _Dictionnaire de l'ancien franc,ais_ (Paris: Larousse, 1997), s.. espine, gris. [9] The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), s.v. grey. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Arval, 29 Jan 2005: Added the reference to Smith for .