ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2335
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2335
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21 May 2001
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Uryen d'Grey> is an appropriate name for a late 13th or
early 14th century Englishman of Norman lineage.  This letter is a brief
answer to your question.

The name of the Arthurian character <Urian> was used in England throughout
your period.  We have found these examples [1]:

  Urian 1273
  Uryene 1273
  Urianus 1431
  Urian 1655

Your spelling <Uryen> is within the documented range of spelling variation,
so it's a fine choice.  The name would have been pronounced somwhere
between \OO-ree-@n\ and \OOR-yen\, where the \OO\ is pronounced as in
<hoot> and \@\ stands for the sound of the <a> in <about>.

Your surname <d'Grey> isn't quite right.  You wrote that you think of it as
a contraction of <de la Grey> "of the Grey".  We're not sure what "of the
Grey" would mean, and we have not found any period example of that name.
If it had existed, we doubt it would have contracted to <d'Grey>.  <de> and
<de la> have different meanings and aren't interchangeable.  The
preposition <de> contracts to <d'> only before a vowel.

However, there are some similar surnames which are quite appropriate for
your period.  The first possibility is <de Gray>, an English family name
that ultimately derived from a French place called <Graye> (and thus has
nothing to do with the color "gray").  It is recorded as <Grai> or <de
Grai> 1086, <de Gray> 1196 [2].  <Uryen de Gray> is an excellent name for
your period.

The second option is <le Grey>, a descriptive nickname probably used for a
man who had grey hair.  Medieval examples include <Grai> 1173, <Grei> 1198,
<le Greie>, <le Gray> and <le Grey> 1296 [2].  The French article <le> was
commonly used in English documents of your period; in spoken English, the
name was probably <Uryen the Grey>.  By the end of your period, it was not
unusual for the article to be dropped in bynames of this sort, so <Uryen
Grey> is another option we can recommend.


We hope this brief letter has been useful.  Please write us again if you
have any questions.  I was assisted in researching and writing this letter
by Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Kunegund filia Theoderici, 
Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Juliana de Luna.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  21 May 2001


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References

[1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_,
3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Urian.

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