ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2357 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2357 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 4 Oct 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know when and where the name <Giliana> was used. You also asked for information on appropriate surnames, perhaps something related to animals, or reflecting the fact that you travel. Here is the information we have found. <Giliana> is a Latin form of the name <Juliana>. [1] <Juliana> was a popular name in many European cultures in the Middle Ages. Because you expressed interest in forms such as <Gilian> and <Gillian> as well as <Giliana>, we have focused on spellings that begin with <G->. Forms of <Juliana> using <G-> were most popular in England. We found the following spellings throughout the Middle Ages: Giliana 1194, 1198, 1301, 1315 [1] Gillian 1273, 1568, 1573, 1574, 16th C [1,3,5,9,10,17] Gelyan 1538 [13] Gilian 1558 [17] Gillyan 1573 [9] Gyllian 1573 [9] Gyllyan 1578 [17] Gillion 1585 [4] Gilean 1595 [14] _pet forms_ Gelleia 1221 [1] Gille 1273 [1,10] Gelle 1275, 1279 [1] Gylle 15th C [10] The name was so popular in England that by the mid-15th century the pet form <Gill> had become a generic term for a woman. [11,12] We would like to note, however, that <Giliana>, being Latin, would have been used solely as a documentary form of the name; in spoken circumstances, the name would have been one of the forms ending in <-n> listed above. <Gillian> would have been pronounced \DJIL-y@n\ throughout the period that it was found. The pet form <Gille> and its variants were pronounced \DJIL-@\ in the 13th century, but by the late 14th century into the 15th century, the pronunciation changed to \DJIL\. (The \@\ represents the sound of <a> in <soda> or <about>.) The only other place that we have found a form of <Juliana> beginning with <G-> is in late 15th-century Florence, the name appears as <Giuliana>. [2,7] You expressed interest in being from the Isle of Man, if there was evidence that the name was found there. While we found no explicit evidence that <Juliana> in any form was used in Man, it is not unreasonable. Man was acquired by Scotland in the 13th century, and then by England in the 14th century. In one study of names from 16th century Man, three of the four most popular feminine names were English in origin. [16] It is therefore possible that <Gilian>, being popular in England at the same time, was adopted into Manx use. However, we would like to stress that we have not found the name in Man explicitly, and therefore cannot recommend <Gilian> as the best recreation for a Manxwoman. Based on the above examples, it is most likely that a woman named <Gilian> would have been from England some time between the 13th and 16th centuries. If you are interested in any of the other cultures mentioned, please write us again and we'll be happy to help you find an appropriate surname. In the 13th century, surnames were literal and descriptive; however, by the 16th century, most surnames had become fixed and inherited. Take the surname <Pilgrim> for example; this was originally a surname for someone who had travelled widely, most likely on pilgrimage to Rome or the Holy Land. In the 13th century, a woman could have been known as <Gillian le Pylegrim> "Gillian the Pilgrim" if she was indeed widely-travelled. However, a 16th century woman known as <Gillian Pilgrim> was most likely the daughter of a man whose surname was also <Pilgrim>; their names had no literal meaning. [18] The same would have been true of surnames relating to animals; while surnames such as <le Wolf> 1279 and <le Cat> 1167 were originally descriptive nicknames of the people who bore them, by the 16th century, the surnames <Wolf> and <Catt> would have been fixed, inherited surnames only. [18] We were unable to find any surnames meaning <the Manx>, and only one citation for the surname <de Mann>, meaning "of Man," in 1246. [20] We are reluctant to recommend the name <Gilian de Mann>, because we have no evidence that <de Mann> was still in use at a time when <Gilian> could have been adopted into the Manx name pool. We could offer better suggestions for a surname if we knew whether you were more interested in an earlier or later period name. Please don't hestitate to write again for suggestions that would be appropriate to whichever time period you choose. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Additional research and commentary on this letter were provided by Adelaide de Beaumont, Arval Benicoeur, Adelais de Savigney, Barak Raz, Maridonna Benvenuti, Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant, and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 04Oct01 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/ [2] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/catasto [3] Christian de Holacombe, "Faire Names for English Folk: Late Sixteenth Century English Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 2000) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/christian/fairnames [4] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Given Names in Chesham, 1538-1600/1" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/chesham/ [5] Aryanhwy merch Catmael, "Names found in Oldbury-on-Hill, Glouchestershire Marriage Registers 1538-1600," (WWW: S. Friedemann, 1999). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/oldbury.html [7] Rhian Lyth, "Italian Renaissance Women's Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/italian.html [9] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980). s.n. Juliana [10] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.n. Juliana [11] --, _The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973). s.v. Gill [12] "John Paston, writing to his wife Margaret in 1460, could say: 'My Lord Persy and all this house recomaund them to yow, dogge, catte and mowse, and wysshe ye had be here stille, for the sey ye are a good gille.' 'Paston letters and papers of the fifteenth century, Part I', Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library, 1994. http://etext.virginia.edu/mideng.browse.html" [13] "Marriages from the Durham St Oswald Registers (1538-1734)" (WWW: GENUKI, 1996). http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/Transcriptions/DUR/DSO.html [14] "Marriages from the Easington Registers (1570-1837)" (WWW: GENUKI, 1996). http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/Transcriptions/DUR/EAS.html [16] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Manx Names in the Early 16th Century" (WWW: S. Krossa, 1998) http://www.MedievalScotland.org/manxnames/jonesmanx16.shtml [17] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Names and Naming Practices in the Registers of the Church of St. Mary's, Dymock" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/dymock/ [18] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Pilgrim. <Pylegrim> is dated to 151. <Pilgrim> is a header form; by the 16th century, many surnames were already spelled as they are in modern times, and so <Pilgrim> would most likely be appropriate for the 16th century. [19] Reaney & Wilson, op cit., s.nn. Catt, Wolf [20] Kneen, J.J., _The Personal Names of the Isle of Man_ (London: Oxford University Press, 1937). p. 96