ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2136 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2136 ************************************ 19 Oct 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether , meaning "Alia the Black Moth", is an appropriate name for a 13th century French woman. Here is what we have found. You told us you found mentioned in one of our reports [1]. Unfortunately, as we noted in that report, we found the name used in the 9th century [2]. We have no evidence that the name was still in use 400 years later, so we cannot recommend it for your period. Happily, we found an alternative that might appeal to you: , recorded in Artois (in northwestern France) around 1300 [3]. This is a rare feminine name, but it does fit your period. It was pronounced \AAH-l@\, where \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the 'a' in or . Unfortunately, the byname doesn't fit any pattern of naming that we've observed in your period. We found a few examples of bynames based on the names of insects and other animals, but none that were compounded with an adjective. For example, we found "bee" used for a beekeeper and "the wolf" [7], but nothing like "the black wolf". Even if you drop , the name won't fit your period: The word appeared in French only in 1568 [4]. By then, surnames were inherited in France, so there's no chance that the word could have been used to create a new surname. In addition, is a technical term from entomology; the common term for a moth is (literally "night butterfly"). We found an alternative that might appeal to you. The word for "butterfly" was used as a byname as early as the 13th century, when it appears as . The form was recorded in the 15th century. It was used to signify quickness, nimbleness, or fickleness [5, 6]. Both examples were recorded in Picardy, quite close to Artois where we found the given name . or would be a fine choice for northwestern France in your period. The word "the" appears to have been optional in this sort of byname. 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 Isfael ap Briafael, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, Amant le Marinier, Juliana de Luna, and Dietmar von Straubing. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 19 Oct 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Academy of S. Gabriel report 991 http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?991 [2] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972), I:32b. [3] Bougard, Pierre, and Maurits Gysseling, _L'Impot Royal en Artois (1295-1302): Ro^les du 100e et du 50e pre/sente/s et publie/s avec une table anthroponymique, Me/moires de la Commission Royale de Toponymie et de Dialectologie #13 (Louvain: Imprimerie Orientaliste, B.P. 41, 1970). [4] Robert, Paul, _Le Petit Robert 1: Dictionnaire alphabe/tique et analogique de la langue franc,ais_ (Paris: Le Robert, 1985), s.v. phale\ne. [5] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967), p.219. [6] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Papillon. [7] Dauzat, s.nn. Abeille, Leleu.