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 <Audris de Wynchcombe> 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 <Audris>, 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 <Audris> 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 <Audrey> come 
close to what you are using.  The name <Audrey> 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 <ae>; {th} 
represents the letter thorn, which was written like a lower case <b> and 
<p> overlapped so that they form one long vertical stroke and one loop.  We 
find this name recorded in the documentary Latin form <Etheldreda>.  Saint 
Etheldreda was an Anglo-Saxon queen who died in 679. [1]  Note that the 
Latin form has a terminal <a> where there is none in the original name. 
 Latinized feminine names usually end in <a> 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 
<Etheldreda> 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 <cat>; \dh\ stands for the sound of <th> in 
<this>; \u"\ stands for German u-umlaut as in <fu"hlen> 'to feel' or French 
<sur> 'sure'; \th\ stands for the sound of <th> in <thing> 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 <g>; an example from a 12th century source compiled before 1167 is 
<Egeldre{th}a>. [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 <Aildreda> probably represents much the same pronunciation, 
perhaps at a slightly later stage, closer to \EYL-dreth\ (as in <eye>).

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 
<Etheldreda>, but in everyday usage we would expect a sound more nearly 
represented by <Aldreth> or <Audrey>.

Your surname <de Wynchcombe> most likely derives from the town of Winchcomb 
(modern spelling) in Gloucestershire; it was recorded as <Wincelcumbe> 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 <de>, 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 <Adeldreda de Winchcumbe> for 
1200, <Etheldreda de Wynchecoumbe>, known as <Audrey> or <Aldreth>, for the 
14th century, and <Audria Wynchecombe> 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 <e> are also Latinized; the <e> 
results when a form which otherwise ends in <a> is given in a genitive, or 
possessive, form.  It is, like the final <a>, not reflected in the 
pronunciation.


[10]     These instances of  <Audrey> 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 <ow> as in <cow>.


[11]    Because this form of the name was recorded in the late 16th 
century, it is possible that the final <a> was pronounced, possibly 
\AW-dree-@\, where @ represents the sound of <a> in <about>.


[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.