ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2213 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2213 ************************************ From: (Josh Mittleman) 18 Dec 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate Occitan name for a woman living between 1050 and 1250. This letter is a brief answer to your question. is a French name, but a similar form was used in Occitan. Troubadour poems include it as , , , , and [1]. Your byname (surname) isn't quite right. is the modern English name for that province; in Occitan it was called , , or [2], pronounced roughly \gas-COHN-y@\, where \@\ represents the sound of the 'a' in or . would be a fine choice, though it is perhaps not the most likely name for your period. When individual bynames were created from the names of regions in Old French and Occitan, they were usually constructed from the adjectival form of the place name. In a census of Paris from 1292, we find many examples, including [5]: Guille le Picart "the Picard" Galeren le Breton "the Breton" Genevie\ve la Flamenge "the Fleming" Guibe l'Englois "the Englishman" In English records we find examples of bynames that mean "the Gascon": 1266, 1208. We also find 1243, but this is a less common pattern [3]. In Occitan, the adjective meaning "Gascon" appears as and [4]. or simply may be a more typical name for your period. was pronounced \GAHS-kah\. It's unlikely that any of these names would have been used in Gascony itself. In this period, bynames were essentially descriptive and were used for their practical value in identifying people more precisely. In Gascony, where almost everyone in a Gascon, identifying someone as "the Gascon" isn't very useful. We almost always see this type of name used for people who have traveled away from their homeland. A Gascon in Gascony is more likely to have been identified by the town or manor where she lived. If she moved to Provence, her new neighbors would very likely identify her as . In the 11th-13th century, most documents were written in Latin. In Latin, your name might have been written , using the medieval Latin name of Gascony [6]. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 18 Dec 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Chambers, Frank M., _Proper Names in the Lyrics of the Troubadours_ (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971), s.nn. Isabel, Isabela. [2] Chambers s.n. Gasconha. [3] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Gascoign. [4] Chambers, s.nn. Gasc, Gasco. [5] 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 [6] Bethel, John P., ed., _Webster's Geographical Dictionary_ (Springfield, Massachusetts: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1969), s.n. Gascony.