ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2194 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2194 ************************************ 17 Jan 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 15th century Byzantine man. Here is what we have found. The language of medieval Byzantium was Greek. We can't write the Greek alphabet in this letter, so we'll use Roman alphabet representations of Greek and give the Greek spellings in footnotes. is a Latin name [1], but it was apparently adopted into Greek quite early. We found a classical Greek example of the name in the form [2] and mention of a 3rd century Coptic saint who bore some form of this name as well [3]. The more common form Greek form [4] was adopted into Russian as by 1356 and into Polish as or by the 15th or 16th century [5, 6, 7, 8]. None of this evidence clearly confirms that the name was used in 15th century Greek, but it is very plausible. In your period, a man of the upper classes would have used one or more surnames in addition to his given name. You can find a list of surnames from your period, with some advice on how to use them, in this article: Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/introduction.html 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 Maridonna Benvenuti, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 17 Jan 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] 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), II:116. [2] Fraser, P.M., and E. Matthews, "The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names" (WWW: Oxford University, 1998). represents the Greek spelling beta-iota-kappa-tau-eta-rho. The letter beta was pronounced \v\ by the 2nd century CE. http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/ [3] Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion (WWW: CopNet, accessed 10 Jan 2001). http://pharos.bu.edu/cn/synexarion/MauriceOfTheba.txt [4] represents the Greek spelling beta-iota-kappa-tau-omega-rho. [5] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names", 2nd edition (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1996). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/ [6] Unbegaun, B. O., _Russian Surnames_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), p.48. [7] Walraven van Nijmegen and Arval Benicoeur, _Polish Given names in Nazwiska Polako/w_ (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/walraven/polish/ [8] Taszycki, Witold (ed.), _S{l/}ownik Staropolskich Nazw Osobowych_, vols. I-VII (Wroc{l/}aw: Zak{l/}ad Narodowy Imienia Ossoli{n'}skich, Polska Akademia Nauk, 1965-1987), s.n. Wiktor.