ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2293
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2293
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11 May 2001
From: Judith Phillips 

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked us whether the name <Alegra Cervantes de Ibarra>, or any form of
the name <Alegra>, would be appropriate for a Spanish woman living in the
12th-14th centuries. Here is the information we found.

Unfortunately, we found no evidence that <Alegra> was used as a feminine
given name during your period. We did find a single example of the given
name <Alegre> used in 1197 [1]. We aren't sure whether <Alegre> was the name
of a man or a woman; since most of the documents from that period contain
many more men's than women's names, we believe that <Alegre> was most likely
a masculine given name.

Although feminine forms of many masculine names did exist in medieval
Spanish, other masculine names have no feminine equivalent.  Given that this
name only appeared once, and we haven't found a feminine form, we cannot
recommend it as good re-creation.  If you'd like to choose a different given
name, you can find some possibilities on the web:

      "Medieval Spanish Names from the Monastery of Sahagun"
          http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/miguel/sahagun/
      "A Partial List of Leonese and Castilian Given Names 1050-1200"
          http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/diego/reilly.html

<Alegre> was found as a surname in your period and later. It appears simply
to have been a descriptive byname meaning "joyful".  Our examples include:

      Petro Alegre 1219 [2]
      John Alegre 1260 [1]
      Juan Perez alegre 1260 [3]
      Pero Alegre 11th-13th c.[1]
      Pedro Alegre 13th c. [1]
      Diego Alegre 1282 [2]
      Marti/n Alegre 1568 [4]

We also found an example of <Alegria>, "happiness", used as a surname:

      Lope Alegria 1149 [2]

All of these examples are of men's names, but <Alegre> could have been used
by women as well. Our 1568 example was probably an inherited surname rather
than a literal descriptive name; surnames had just begun to be inherited by
the end of your period, although descriptive names were still found as well.

Note that <Alegre> is a neutral adjective and therefore has no feminine form
<Alegra>. For example, a woman named Constanza would probably have been called
<Constanza Alegre> rather than <Constanza Alegra> in your period.

There is also a place name <Alegria> that appears in Spanish surnames both
in your period and later:

      Alonso Alegri/a 1539
      Juan de Alegri/a 1544 [4]

<De Ibarra> is a locative surname derived from the Basque <ibar>, "meadow"
[5]. (A locative surname is one that identifies a person by her place of
residence or origin.) We found several examples from the 16th century, by
which time the name <de Ibarra> was common throughout the Iberian peninsula
[4]. While we found no evidence that the surname <de Ibarra> was used in
your period, we believe that it is plausible.

<Cervantes> is a surname that originated as a locative name from <Cervatos>
in northwest Castile [6]. Again, we found several 16th century examples [4].
However, without evidence that it was used in your period we cannot
recommend it as the best possible historical recreation.

A Spanish name from your period might include either one surname, or two
surnames of different types, but probably not three. <Maria Alegre> would
be an excellent choice for your period, and <Maria Alegre de Ibarra> would
be fine as well.

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 Maridonna Benvenuti,
Talan Gwynek, Leonor Martin, Arval Benicoeur, Juliana de Luna, Aryanhwy
merch Catmael, and Kunegund filia Theoderici.

For the Academy,

Adeliza de Saviniaco
11 May 2001

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References:

[1] Kremer, Dieter.  'Bemerkungen zu den mittelalterlichen hispanischen
cognomina', in _Aufsa"tze zur Portugiesischen Kulturgeschichte_, vols. 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17.  Sonderdruck aus Portugiesische Forschungen der
Go"rresgesellschaft. Herausgegeben von Hans Flasche (Mu"nster:
Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1970-1981/82). v. IV p.190.

[2] Diez Melcon, R. P. Gonzalo, _Apellidos Castellano-Leoneses: Siglos
IX-XIII, ambos inclusive_ (Universidad de Granada, 1957). p.271, section 253.

[3] Diez Melcon, op. cit., p. 304, section 302.

[4] De Atienza, Julio, _Nobiliario Espan~ol_ (Madrid: Aguilar SA de
Ediciones, 1954). s.n.n. Alegre, Alegria, Ibarra, Cervantes.

[5] Michelena, Luis, _Apellidos Vascos_, 3rd ed. (San Sebastian: Editorial
Txertoa, 1973). s.v. ivar.

[6] Ormsby, John, preface to his translation of Miguel de Cervantes, "Don
Quixote" (WWW: Encyclopedia of the Self, 1999-2001).
http://encyclopediaindex.com/c/1donq10.htm