ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2110 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2110 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 6 Oct 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate name for a woman living in the south of France before 1550. Here is the information we have found. Northern and southern France used different languages throughout most of our period. The southern language in your period was Occitan (also called "Langue d'Oc" and "Provencal"). The Occitan forms of names were frequently very different from the French forms. is a French diminutive of , an adaptation of the Russian name , which is a diminutive of . Many Russian names were adopted into French in the early 20th century as a result of the popularity of the Ballet Russe; almost certainly dates from that period [1,5]. We found no evidence that the name was used in France before 1600. The form that you found is masculine; it is a pet form of either , an Occitan form of the Latin name , or , a variant of . [2,3] Unfortunately, we have not found any evidence that was feminized in any form in period. If you would like to consider alternatives for your given name, we recommend the following article from our library on southern French names: "Late Period Feminine Names from the South of France" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/latefrenchfem/ You are correct that a surname meaning "of the garden," would be appropriate; we found used as a French last name in 1306 and 1315. [4] Our evidence for the plural form, , is less substantial: we found examples of both and the Picard form , but without dates. We are not sure if they would be appropriate for your period or not, but we have no reason to doubt that they are. [2] The Occitan equivalent of the French 'of the (masculine)' was . If you would like to set your persona in the south, would be more appropriate. 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 Antonio Miguel de Santos Borja, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Julie Stampnitzky, Amant le Marinier, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 06Oct00 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.n. Nadine [2] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987). s.nn. Jardin, Nadal [3] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de Famille_ (Librairie Acade/mique Perrin, 1997). s.n. Nadin [4] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). [5] Hanks, Patrick, and Flavia Hodges, _A Dictionary of First Names_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1990). s.n. Nadine