ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2232 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2232 ************************************ From: "Sara" 14 Jan 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if either or , or any form of starting with , was used in England between 1250 and 1300. Here is the information we have found. The name is found in a considerable variety of spellings, some beginning with , some with . In the following, we have listed forms spelled with that are found in your period; spellings marked with an "L" following them are Latin documentary forms, which were typically made by adding the suffix <-a> to the vernacular (spoken) forms: [1,2,3,4] Alianor 1273, 1281 Alienor c. 1202, 1211 Alienora 1199, 1213, 1297 L Alyenora 1182-1272 L Your desired spelling of is an excellent choice for your period. In general the forms are earlier than the forms, probably because the name comes from the Provenc,al name , but there is considerable overlap. This range of spellings shows that the pronunciation of the name changed over time and probably from one dialect to another as well. The implied range of pronunciations is from \AHL-y@-nor\ through \AL-y@-nor\ to \EL-y@-nor\ and eventually the modern \EL-@-nor\, where \A\ stands for the vowel of and \@\ for the sound of in and . This sequence probably roughly corresponds also to the changes over time. In general we expect that spellings generally represent the pronunciations \AHL-y@-nor\ and \AL-y@-nor\, while spellings represent \AL-y@-nor\ and \EL-y@-nor\. [*] For your period and spelling preferences, \AL-y@-nor\ is a likely pronunciation. At your time, inherited surnames were rare; rather, a woman of your period could have been known in a variety of different ways. She could have been known as her father's daughter, ; as her husband's wife, in Latin; by the place where she or her family lived, ; or even by some sort of nickname, 'brown-eye.' If you would like suggestions on appropriate surnames, please write us again and we'll be happy to help. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hestitate to write again if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, Arval Benicoeur, Adelais de Savigny, and Amant le Marinier. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael 14 Jan 2001 ----- References & Notes [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Eleanor [2] Talan Gwynek, 'Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_' (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/reaney/ [3] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980) s.n. Corbett [4] Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester, 'A Statistical Study of Given Names in Essex Co., England, 1182-1272', in the 1995 Midrealm Heraldic Symposium Proceedings (SCA: 1995; WWW: J. Mittleman) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5145/names.html [*] There was a certain amount of standardization and use of conventional spellings in your period, but we think that on the whole the attested spellings can be interpreted as rough guides to the actual pronunciation.