ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2209 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2209 ************************************ 19 Feb 2001 From: Dietmar Greetings on behalf of the Academy of St. Gabriel. You asked for our help in developing an authentic name for an English woman living between 1150 and 1250 using the name and a locative byname from the city of . Here is what we have found. As you know from your research, the given name is dated to the year 1188 [1]. However, this is a latinized form. The underlying vernacular name is something like , which we believe was pronounced \AH-el-is\ or perhaps \EY-lis\, with \ey\ as in . Related names from your chosen period include: Aeleis 1219-20 Aelesia 1219-20 Aelisia 1190 Aelizia 1180 Ahelis 1188 Ahelissa 1188 Alesia 1200 Alice c.1147-57, 1196, 1197, 1200, 1201, 1203 1206, 1207, 1220, 1221, 1230, 1243 Alicia 1202, 1205, 1212, 1219, 1221, 1231 Alis 1200 Alis 1214 [3] Aliz 1154-89 We found the following spellings of for your period [2]: Limington 1186 Liminton 1196 Lemneton c.1250 Limintone c.1200 Liminton 1235 Lemington 1243 We expect a locative name to have used a preposition in your period. The Latin written form would be excellent with the given name you've chosen. In summary, would make a fine Latin documentary form for your name. We expect the spoken form to be , pronounced \EY-lis ohf LEE-ming-tohn\, where \oh\ is the vowel of . I 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, Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Julie Stampnitzky, Margaret Makafee, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Dietmar von Straubing 19 February, 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References, [1] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) s.n. Alice [URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/reaney/]. [2] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). s.nn. Limington, Lymington [3] In this case the name was found as a byname, not a forename. This is not all bad because bynames are less likely to be latinized than forenames, so they often give a better picture of the vernacular. This is especially helpful at an early date like this, when the byname is very likely to be a genuine metronymic.