ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2303
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2303
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* NOTE: Later research turned up additional     *
*       information relevant to this report.    *
*       See the end of the letter for details.  *
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22 May 2001
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Griffinsgate> "Griffin's pass" is an appropriate name
for a place in period England.  Here is what we have found.

Your question breaks down into two parts: Could the personal name <Griffin>
have been used in a medieval English place name?  And were personal names
like this one compounded with <-gate> "pass" to form place names?  

<Griffin> is a Latin and Anglo-Norman form of the Welsh given name
<Gruffydd>.  It appears in Latin records as <Grifin> 1066, <Griffin filius
Gurgan> 1130, and was combined with non-Welsh names soon after: <Robert
Grifin> 1148, <Osbertus filius Griffini> 1153-68 [1].  

Other Norman given names were combined with English place naming elements
to create place names as early as the 11th century [2]:

  Ricardescote 1086   "Richard's cottage"
  Pons Roberti 1199   "Robert's bridge"
  Walterton    1226-8 "Walter's settlement"
  Johannestun  1227   "Johan's settlement"
  Willemscote  1232   "William's cottage"
  Hugh Leghe   1327   "Hugh's clearing"
  Gilberdyke   1349   "Gilbert's dike"

We also found the Latin <vicus Ricardi> c.1206 "Ricard's Row, Ricard's
Street", the name of a street in Carlisle which is modernly called
<Rickergate> [2].  

The particular name <Griffin> was used to form English-language place names
in Wales by the end of our period, e.g. <Griffeston> 1541 and <Treurdan'
Gruffin> 1543 "Griffin's Treurdan" distinguished from other sections of a
place called Treurdan [3].

The element <-gate> in modern English place names derives from two
different root words: Old English <geat> and Old Norse <gata>:

Old English <geat> was used in place names to mean "a gap in a wall, fence,
or ditch", "a deep ravine, a pass", and "a natural gap in a line of cliffs
at the seashore" [5].  Examples where it was combined with given names
include <Boviete> "Bofa's gate" 11th century, <Bosegete> "Bosa's gate"
c.1155, <Pilesgeat> "Pil's gate" 1130 [4], and the modern <Symond's Yat>,
which was probably "Sigemund's gate" [5].  In Old English, the <g> was
pronounced as a consonantal \y\ when followed by <e>, as indicated in the
period name <Boviete> and preserved in the modern <Symond's Yat>.

Old Norse <gata> means "a way, a path, a road, a street".  It was used
primarily in the North Country and the Danelaw [6] where the Welsh-derived
<Griffin> was unusual.  We can't make a good case that <gata> would have
been combined with Norman given names.  Since the combination also wouldn't
have the meaning you want, we won't pursue this possibility [7].

It's worth noting that none of the compounds with <geat> includes a Norman
given name.  However, some of the examples we've cited of place names based
on Norman names refer to analogous topographic features, e.g. <Pons
Roberti> and <Gilberdyke>.  One can therefore postulate place names
combining <Griffin> with <geat>, though it isn't the best possible
re-creation.

To get the meaning you asked about, "Griffin's Pass", we combine the
possessive form of <Griffin> with a Middle English form of <geat> to get
<Griffinesgete> or <Griffinesgeat> in the 12th or 13th century, both of
which would be pronounced roughly \GRIH-fin-@s-YET-@\.  \@\ represents the
sound of the <a> in <about> or <soda>.  In 15th or 16th century English,
the name might have become <Griffinsyat>, <Griffinsyatt>, or <Griffinseat>,
but probably not <Griffinsgate>.


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, Adelaide de
Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Juliana de
Luna. 

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  22 May 2001

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References

[1] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Griffin.

[2] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_,
4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), s.nn. Williamscot,
Robertsbridge, Rickerby, Johnson Hall, Gilberdike, Waterston, Hughley.

[3] Charles, B. G., "The Place-Names of Pembrokeshire" (Aberystwyth: The
National Library of Wales, 1992), pp. 215, 549.  That the first element is
the name <Griffin> is confirmed by later citations such as <Griffithston>
1759.

[4] Ekwall, s.nn. Boyatt, Bozeat, Pilsgate.

[5] Smith, A.H., _English Place-Name Elements_ (Cambridge: At the
University Press, 1956), sv. geat.

[6] Smith, s.v. gata.

[7] <Gata> was combined with given names -- <Goodramgate>, <Hartergate>,
<Walmgate> [6].  However, we've found only one possible example of a
compound with a Norman given name: The modern <Rickergate> that we cited
earlier apparently derives from <Ricardes gata> "Ricard's street" [2].  One
could speculate on the possibility of a 12th century <Griffines gata>
evolving in late period to <Griffinsgate>; but since <Griffin> was rare in
the regions where <gata> was productive, we consider this construction
implausible.

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Arval, 29 May 2001: Corrected an editing error that suggested that
<Griffines gata> is plausible.