ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2174 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2174 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 06 Dec 2000 From: Dietmar Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked us to check whether is an appropriate name for a woman in northern Germany (preferably in Lu"beck), from 1220-1400. (We are using " to represent an umlaut over the preceding letter.) You also mentioned interest in knowing when the name was in use. Here is what we have found. You are correct that is latinized; it probably represents the German name or . These are short forms of , a given name that was very popular throughout medieval Germany. [1] Variants of the short form were used at least from 830 to nearly the end of the 16th century [2, 3]. Examples from your period include [4]: Alheyt 1363, 1523 Alheydis 1312, 1352/64, 1368/1381 (L) Alheyde 1355, 1389 Alhedis 1355 (L) Alleyde* 1355/83 Adelheydis 1292, 1321 (L) Alheid 1396 Alheyde* = Alheyt 1364/65 Alheidis, Alheydis undated (L) Here the (L) indicates a name used in a Latin context. Names marked with an asterisk (*) were recorded in an oblique or genitive grammatical case; the final <-e> was probably added to the basic form of the name for this reason. The following names are recorded in Danish records, and may be relevant since Lu"beck is so close to Denmark and the languages in these two regions were not as distinctly different at that time as they are today. [5] Alheyde 1374 Alhedt 1360, 1370 Alheydis* 1391 (L) Alheyd 1406, 1416 Alhed 1414, 1501 Alheyth 1462 Alheith 1467 Alheyt 1473 Alheyden* 1473 Allhed 1528 Adelheid 1430 Adelheytz 1458 Adelhedt 1566 We recommend or as the most likely Latin documentary form in the early part of your period, though and the like may well be possible even in the 13th century. In vernacular use, we expect to see and perhaps the short forms or . [3] The most likely common form for the 14th c. is , with and the like also possible. Forms with are much more common than without. It appears that , at least, would be suitable on through to the end of the SCA period. The locative byname is a correct way to identify a person from Lu"beck, but the name may have taken a different form in different time periods. We have found the forms 1318, [3] 1406, 1411, and 1462. [6] In the dialect of Old Low German (spoken in what is now northern Germany and the Low Countries) the name of the city was usually . The most common preposition used in writing Low German names of this type for your period was ; (the Low German variant of High German ) was just coming into use. It's unlikely that this byname would have been used to identify you while you were in Lu"beck. Bynames were used in your period for their identification value. In Lu"beck nearly everyone is "of Lu"beck", so that name is not useful in the town itself. However, you would not have to go far from Lu"beck for the byname to be meaningful. In summary, the name would be a fine name for a woman living in the area near Lu"beck in the 13th century. [7] For the 14th century, the name would be a fine choice, though we expect to be more likely throughout your time period. Most documents in your period were written in Latin. Your name might have been rendered into Latin as or . is a Latin adjectival form of . 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 Adelaide de Beaumont, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Hartmann Rogge, Juliana de Luna, Julie Stampnitzky, Talan Gwynek, and Walraven van Nijmegen Dietmar von Straubing 6 December 2000 [1] Drosdowski, Guenther. Duden Lexikon der Vornamen, 2nd ed. (Mannheim: Dudenverlag, 1974); s.nn. Adelheid, Aleide, Aleit. [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:16b [3] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutsches Namenlexikon : Familien- und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklaert_ (Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985, 1990). s.n. Alber: = is recorded in 1155. Also s.nn. Adelheid, Lu"bbe. [4] Zoder, R., _Familiennamen in Ostfalen_. 2 vols. (Hildesheim: 1968) pp. 29, 44, 45, 46, 54, 59, 81, 86, 110, 122, 136, 138. [5] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48). s.n. Athalheth. [6] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960). s.nn. Lu"beck(er), Lubbeke. [7] Maxwell, Robert L. and Larson, Karen, "Bibliographic Standards Committee: Latin Place Names found in the imprints of books printed before 1801 and their vernacular equivalents in AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules) form" (WWW: Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 14 March 2000) [URL: http://www.lib.byu.edu/~catalog/people/rlm/latin/l/lubecae.htm] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addendum 21 Dec 2000: Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked a couple follow-up questions about your name. As far as we know, and are strictly Latin forms which would only have been used in Latin records, not in speech. The longer form was used earlier; the shift in written records appears to have occurred around 1300. and the other forms ending <-e> are German forms of the name, but probably inflected grammatical forms, i.e. not ones that would have been used in direct address or as the subject of a sentence. The spoken form of the name was probably more like up to the early 13th century, later. Regardless of spelling, all the short forms (i.e. those beginning rather than ) would have been pronounced roughly \AH-layt\ or \AHL-hayt\, with \ay\ pronounced as in the word . In the north of Germany, where you want to set your persona, the longer forms and were probably pronounced roughly \AH-del-hayt\. The preposition was pronounced roughly \vahn\, but with the vowel having fairly short duration. was \LOOB-bek-@\, with \OO\ pronounced as in , not as in ; and with \@\ representing the sound of the 'a' in or . Arval for the Academy 21 Dec 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correct, Aryanhwy, 3 May 2003: Added the headword to note [3].