ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2096 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2096 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 5 Jul 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our help choosing a name for a woman born in southern Finland in the 15th or 16th century. Unfortunately, we can't offer much assistance as we have no good sources for period Finnish names. Finnish names were recorded by the early 14th century, so it should be possible to choose an authentic name for your period. Unfortunately, we have no lists of names that we can offer you. There are a couple researchers in the Society who are collecting data on period Finnish names, but none of their work has been published yet. If you're willing to settle for a Swedish name -- which is certainly appropriate to time and place you want to re-create -- let us know what sort of given name you have in mind, and we can put together a short list of possibilities. In late-period Swedish, a woman would most likely have been identified as her father's daughter, so if you like we can also provide you a short list of common masculine given names from which you could construct a surname. In general, a person who moved to another country were known to their her neighbors by some translation or transliteration of her original name. If her given name had an equivalent in the local language, she'd usually be known by that local name. For example, there were forms of or in nearly every European language, and they were recognized as being equivalent. Her surname might have been translated or transliterated, depending on whether it had an apparent meaning that made sense in her new language. The upshot is that you could choose the name by which you were known in Italy or France without actually knowing its Finnish form. For example, there were certainly forms of and used in late-period Finnish; so we can assume with some confidence that it is possible for a 15th Finnish woman living in Italy to have been known there as . You might be able to use this approach to choose your current name even without much information about period Finnish naming. We hope this letter has been at least slightly 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 Lindorm Eriksson and Pietari Pentinpoika Uv. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 5 Jul 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Annotated 27 Apr 2001, Arval: Report 2284 contains some examples of 16th century Finnish feminine names.