ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2201
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2201
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*                                               *
* NOTE: Later research turned up additional     *
*       information relevant to this report.    *
*       See the end of the letter for details.  *
*                                               *
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8 Feb 2001
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Alessandra D'Ambre> is an appropriate name for an 11th
century Anglo-Norman woman.  You also asked about the bynames <D'Ambray>
and <de la Rossa>.  Here is what we have found.

<Alessandra> is an Italian form of <Alexandra> [1], and so not appropriate
for an Anglo-Norman woman.  We haven't found evidence that the French used
a feminine form of <Alexander> at any time in our period.  We've found the
masculine form in Paris as <Alixandre> 1292 [8], and in England as
<Alexander> c.1100, <Alisandre> 1273, <Elexander> 1284, <Elysandre> 1284
[3, 9].  The earliest feminine forms we've found in England are 13th
century: <Alexandra> 1205 and <Alexandria> 1218 [2, 9].  These are both
Latin forms, and they probably represent the use of <Alisandre> as a
feminine name.  However, we doubt the feminine name was used much earlier:
It almost certainly developed later than the masculine form.

You wrote that you found <D'Ambray> on a list of 16th century Norman names
in our library [4], and that you re-spelled it <d'Ambre>.  We're not sure
how the Norman place name <Ambray> would have been spelled in 11th century
French, but we doubt it would have been <Ambre>.  <Ambray> may be a
rendering of the place called <Embry> in modern French; that name was
recorded as <Embrica> in 868 and <Embri> in 1311 [7].  If you prefer a
spelling more like <Ambre> we have a suggestion that might appeal to you.
There was a village called <Ambrecourt> in Pas-de-Calais (100 miles north
of Normandy) in 1276 [5].  <Alisandre d'Ambrecourt> is a fine name for an
Anglo-Norman woman in the 13th century, and it is reasonable for the 12th
century as well.  Placing it in the 11th century stretches the evidence
further than we feel comfortable doing.

Your alternate byname <de la Rossa> doesn't work in French.  <Rossa> is a
form of the Italian word for "pink".  There's a common Italian surname
<della Rossa> [6].  <Alessandra della Rossa> would be a fine Italian name,
probably appropriate from the 12th century onward.  There is a similar
Anglo-French byname <de la Rose>; that name was used as early as 1242 and
might well be appropriate for your period [10, 11].  It could have been
understood to describe someone from a place called <La Rose> or someone who
lived at a house known as "The Rose".


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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Maridonna
Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Juliana de Luna.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  8 Feb 2001


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References

[1] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of
Florence of 1427" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). 
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/catasto

[2] Nicolaa de Bracton, "A Statistical Survey of Given Names in Essex Co.,
England, 1182-1272", Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings 1995 (SCA
Inc.; WWW: privately published, 1997). 
http://members.xoom.com/nicolaa/names.html

[3] Clark, Cecily.  'A Witness to Post-Conquest English Cultural Patterns:
The _Liber Vitae_ of Thorney Abbey', in _Words, Names and History: Selected
Writings of Cecily Clark_, Peter Jackson, ed. (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer,
1995).  The name <Alexander> appears in a list of monks recorded 1100-1110.
It may incorporate older material, but we suspect that the name came into
use in honor of Pope Alexander II (1061-73).  If so, it would make sense
for it to be used first as a religious name.

[4] Cateline de la Mor, "Sixteenth Century Norman Names" (SCA: KWHS
Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997).
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/cateline/norman16.html

[5] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de
Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963) s.n. Ambricourt.

[6] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei cognomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori
Editore, 1978), s.n. Rossi.

[7] 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), III:19a.

[8] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris",
Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery,
Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997).
http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html

[9] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_,
3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.nn. Alexander,
Alexandra.

[10] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.n. Rose.

[11] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Rose.


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Annotation by Aryanhwy, 23 Feb 2007: Later research resulted in a
different conclusion concerning <della Rossa>.  For more information,
see Report #2286.