ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2244 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2244 ************************************ 6 Mar 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a woman born in Byzantium in 1045. Here is what we have found. You explained that you chose this name to represent your persona history: daughter of a Byzantine noblewoman named Zoe Maiandria Gabraina and a Varangian guard named Lodin Kormaksson. You explained that you consider to be your persona's legal name, and her use-name, and that you use both surnames to indicate your culturally mixed parentage. Unfortunately, the name you've constructed is not plausible. Our research suggests that medieval names did not reflect parentage by mixing languages, as many Societyfolk think. Instead, a person was named in the language of the country where he lived. It may help to think of a name as the way people identify you rather than as a fixed, unchanging label bestowed by your parents or adopted on your own. A woman from medieval Italy who moved to Germany would be known to the local German population by a German name, perhaps based on her Italian name. For example, a Florentine named who moved to Mainz would probably have been called by her new neighbors. Similarly, a child living in Mainz, of whatever parentage, would have been known locally by a German name, not by a mixture of Italian and German name elements. We've found evidence that this was true specifically in medieval Byzantium: Immigrants to the city, at least among the nobility, adopted Greek names. Foreign empresses received a Greek name upon their arrival in Constantinople. The daughter of the Khagan of the Khazars who married Constantine V took the name Irene. The Comnenes who married Christian princesses who were born within the Empire but whose names had no Byzantine equivalents gave their brides the given names of their own mothers. John II, son of Alexis and Irene Doukaina, took as wife Piroshka of Hungary who became Irene. Manuel, his son, followed the same practice in rebaptizing Berthe of Sulzbach as Irene. These empresses are never surnamed Comnene in inscriptions where they are named. ... Yolande de Montferrat, wife of Andronicos II, sealed under the name of Irene Comnene, Doukas, and Paleologos, and Jeanne de Savoie, wife of Andronicos III, under the name of Anne Paleologos [1] The feminine given name is recorded in Byzantine records in 952, quite close to your period; it is a fine choice [2]. is another feminine given name, but the only example we know of it much earlier, before 650 AD [3]. Without evidence that it remained in use for the next four hundred years, we can't recommend it as good re-creation for the mid-11th century. We have found no evidence that 11th century Greeks used middle names (or other forms of multiple given name). You may have noticed the name in the article that's our reference [2]; in this name, is a family name, a feminine form of , and not a second given name. Middle names didn't come into general use in Europe until long after your period. We therefore recommend strongly that you drop your second given name, . is a correctly-constructed feminine form of the medieval Greek family name . That surname is recorded in 979 and in the 11th century, so it is perfect for your period [2]. Most Byzantine noblewomen were identified either as their fathers' daughters or as their husbands' wives. For example, , a daughter of ; , daughter of ; , widow of . These examples were recorded before the 9th century. Family surnames began to appear in the 9th century, and from the first half of the 11th century, women's names appear in official records with surnames. Women almost always used their fathers' or occasionally their mothers' surnames rather than their husbands' [4]. Thus, would be an excellent 11th century Byzantine name for a woman whose mother was surnamed . She might well have been known by her father's surname as well [2], but that would have been a Greek surname, not an Old Norse byname like . Unfortunately, we do know of any records that show how Varangians were identified in Greek. The same woman could conceivably have been known to Norsemen by an Norse name; if you're interested in developing a second name in Old Norse, we may be able to help. We must stress that we have seen no evidence of mixed Greek/Norse names. 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, Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Gotfrid von Schwaben, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Blaise de Cormeilles. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 6 Mar 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Cheynet, Jean-Claude, "L'Anthroponymie Aristocratique a\ Byzance" in Bourin, Monique, Jean-Marie-Martin, and Francois Menant, eds., _L'Anthroponymie: Document de l'Histoire Sociale des Mondes Me/diterrane/ens Me/die/vaux_, Collection de l'E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 226 (Rome: E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 1996), pp.267-294. This quote from p.288, our translation. [2] Bardas Xiphias, "Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/introduction.html [3] Bardas Xiphias, "Common Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the 6th and 7th Centuries" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/early_byz_names.html [4] Cheynet, passim.