ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2130 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2130 ************************************ From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 6 Nov 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate name for a woman living in England prior to 1600. Here is the information we have found. You mentioned that you found the name , which you are pronouncing \AW-driss\, in an historical romance novel. Because complete historical authenticity is almost never the author's primary concern, fiction cannot be trusted as a source for historical names. In this case, we cannot find any instances of in England prior to 1600, nor can we find a name which will yield the pronunciation you are currently using. If you would like a similar-sounding name, many forms of come close to what you are using. The name exists in various forms prior to 1600. It derives from the Old English name <{AE}{th}el{th}ry{th}>. In this notation, {AE} represents the Anglo-Saxon character "{ae}sc", or "ash", which is written as a combined ; {th} represents the letter thorn, which was written like a lower case and

overlapped so that they form one long vertical stroke and one loop. We find this name recorded in the documentary Latin form . Saint Etheldreda was an Anglo-Saxon queen who died in 679. [1] Note that the Latin form has a terminal where there is none in the original name. Latinized feminine names usually end in and we would not expect that letter to be reflected in the common pronunciation of the name. Possibly due to the saint's popularity and familiarity, the written form was preserved much longer than many Latinizations, despite progressive changes in the pronunciation of the name. The standard textbook pronunciation for <{AE}{th}el{th}ry{th}>, is \A-dhel-thru"th\, where \A\ is pronounced as in ; \dh\ stands for the sound of in ; \u"\ stands for German u-umlaut as in 'to feel' or French 'sure'; \th\ stands for the sound of in and there is a secondary stress on the third syllable. By late Old English, however, the \dh\ had weakened to \y\, often spelled with a ; an example from a 12th century source compiled before 1167 is . [2] At this point the pronunciation was approximately \A-yel-dreth\ or \A-yel-threth\, perhaps depending on dialect; \AY-el-dreth\ and \AY-el-threth\ are also likely dialect variants. The recorded form probably represents much the same pronunciation, perhaps at a slightly later stage, closer to \EYL-dreth\ (as in ). Eventually the diphthong in the first syllable seems to have simplified to \AH\ and, eventually, \AW\. At that point we would expect pronunciations like \AHL-dreth\ and \AWL-dreth\. The available citations suggest that the final consonant disappeared at about the same time that the \l\ was completely vocalized, leading to \AW-dray\; however, \AWL-dray\ and \AW-dreth\ are also possible pronunciations based on the forms we find. By the 16th century, the forms suggest the pronunciation \AW-dree\. This development will not have taken place steadily or consistently; forms will have overlapped in time and varied by locality and perhaps even by individual usage. We find the name recorded in many forms: [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] Aldreda, 1066, 1257, 1287 Etheldreth(e) 1186-88 [9] Atheldrith(e) 1186-88 Edeldride 1198 Adeldreda, 1202 Etheldrede 1205 Aildreda, 1206 Atheldrede 1206 Edeldrede 1212 Aldree 1223 Edeltre 1224 Aldrethe 1224 Eldride 1224 Aldreth' 1228 Ethelred 1228 Aldrede 1230 Audrey, circa 1260, 1355, 1391, [10] 1583 Etheldreda, 1290, 1304, 1328, 1348, 1381 Audry, early 16th c. Awdrye, 1543 Awdrie, 1575 Awdry, 1576 Audria, 1597 [11] Again, many of these forms may not truly reflect how the name was commonly used. For example, a woman living in 1300 might have her name recorded as , but in everyday usage we would expect a sound more nearly represented by or . Your surname most likely derives from the town of Winchcomb (modern spelling) in Gloucestershire; it was recorded as in 1086 [12] and has had various spellings through the years. We find the following forms used in personal names: [13] Vincent de Winchecumbe, 1207 Richard de Wynchecoumbe, 1351 John Wynchecombe, 1382 We note in this name, as in many English place-names, forms both with and without the preposition , meaning "of". In the earlier Middle Ages, locative bynames can appear with or without a preposition; however, by about 1400 the preposition is very rare except in some of the outlying parts of the country. We also note that the "e" after "Winch" was present consistently, at least until about 1400. To create a complete name that is historically plausible, we recommend you choose a form of your given name and of your surname that are dated fairly close together. For example, you could use for 1200, , known as or , for the 14th century, and for the 16th century. 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. I was assisted in researching and composing this letter by Amant le Marinier, Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Blaise de Cormeilles, Dietmar von Straubing, Juliana de Luna, Julie Stampnitzky, Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 6 November 2000 References: [1] Farmer, David Hugh, _The Oxford Dictionary of Saints_, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Etheldreda. [2] Clark, Cecily, _Words, Names and History: Selected Papers_, ed. Peter Jackson (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995), 'People and Languages in Post-Conquest Canterbury', p. 201. [3] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997), s.n. Audrey, [URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/reaney/], accessed 6 November 2000. [4] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Names and Naming Practices in the Registers of the Church of St. Mary's, Dymock" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999), s.n. Audrey, [URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/mari/dymock/], accessed 6 November 2000. [5] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.nn. Audrey, Sabb. [6] Bardsley, Charles Wareing, _Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature_ (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1970). [7] English Names from Pre-1600 Brass Inscriptions by Julian Goodwyn (Janell K. Lovelace), [URL:http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/brasses/women.html], s.n. Audrey, accessed 6 November 2000. [8] Selte/n, Bo, _The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names_, Volumes 1 & 2. (Lund, Sweden: Royal Society of Letters at Lund, 1979), II:35. [9] The early recorded forms ending in are also Latinized; the results when a form which otherwise ends in is given in a genitive, or possessive, form. It is, like the final , not reflected in the pronunciation. [10] These instances of recorded in the 13th and 14th centuries may well be normalized, or changed to a modern spelling. If they reflect forms which were actually used, the pronunciation would most likely be \OW-dray\, with as in . [11] Because this form of the name was recorded in the late 16th century, it is possible that the final was pronounced, possibly \AW-dree-@\, where @ represents the sound of in . [12] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), s.n. Winchcomb. [13] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Winchcomb.