ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2169 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2169 ************************************ 15 Dec 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Cossack man living between 1000 and 1500. Here is what we have found. You wrote that you put your name together based on information from Paul Wickenden's Dictionary of Period Russian Names. That source does list the given name in use in 1623; but a later edition marks it as a non-Russian name, borne by a foreign ambassador [1, 2]. A foreign name, first recorded in Russia in 1623, is unlikely to have been used in Russia in your period. Neither edition of the Dictionary lists . Is it possible that you intended ? That would be a fine Russian byname, which would have been understood to mean "son of Ivon". is a variant of "John" recorded in use at least from the 13th century to the 16th century [1]. We haven't found any justification for . Even if were a plausible Russian name, it isn't clear that it is appropriate for a Cossack. The modern conception of the Cossacks didn't really exist in your period. The Russian term referred to several different peoples in the latter part of our period, who lived in different parts of eastern European and western Asia and who probably spoke different languages. It was originally used in the 15th century for semi-independent Tatar groups in the Dnieper region [3]. If you are interested in a name appropriate to that culture or to one of the others later described as Kazaks, then you'll need to do further research. You can find some help in the on-line Slavic Interest Group, which you can contact through their website, http://slavic.freeservers.com. 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 Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 15 Dec 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names", 2nd edition (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1996). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/ [2] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names", 3rd edition (Normal, Illinois: SCA, Free Trumpet Press West, 2000). [3] "Cossack", (WWW: Britannica.com, 1999-2000). http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/1/0,5716,26911+1+26480,00.html