ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2261 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2261 ************************************ 30 Mar 2001 From: Judith Phillips Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us for forms of the French surnames , , , and appropriate for late 16th century Provence. Here is the information we found. You found all of these surnames in a list of names from 15th-16th century Bordeaux [1], so they are certainly appropriate to your period. However, some of them would not have been used in Provencal, and since you want to combine them with the Provencal given name , we recommend you use a Provencal surname. Northern and southern France used different languages throughout most of our period. The language in northern France, including Paris, was French, while the southern language was Occitan (also called "Langue d'Oc" and "Provencal"). The Occitan forms of names were frequently very different from the French forms. is a surname from Old French , "ash tree" [2]. The most common form in modern southern France is [3]; we think that is a more likely form for your period. While names such as were sometimes collapsed into one word [1], we believe they more often were not. is a surname derived from a common medieval masculine given name; the form of the surname follows the medieval form of the given name. was most common in northern and northeastern France [4]; the less common southern form was [5]. We believe that is appropriate for your period. We were unable to find an example of except in the Bordeaux article. Since we cannot determine its derivation, we are unable to offer an Occitan form. , meaning "the spur" is a topographical name referring to a point of land that sticks out into a river. It is the name of at least two towns, one in Arde\che and one in Landes [6]. Both of these are in your region: Arde\che is in south-central France and Landes is in southwestern France. Based on this information and the example in the Bordeaux article, we believe that is perfectly appropriate for your culture. I hope that this letter has been useful to you. Please feel free to contact us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have any further questions. I was assisted in writing this letter by Juliana de Luna, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Adeliza de Saviniaco 30 March 2001 --------------------------------- References: [1] Aryanhwy merch Catmael and Talan Gwynek, "Names Found in Commercial Documents from Bordeaux, 1470-1520" (WWW: privately published, 2000) [http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/bordeaux.html]. [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.n. Dufrayne. [3] Dauzat, Albert, _Les Noms de Famille de France_ (Paris: Librairie Guenegaud, 1988). p. 148 [4] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). [5] Arval Benicoeur, "Languedoc Names circa 1300" (WWW: privately published, 1998) [http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/toulouse/] [6] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963). s.n. Lesperson.