ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2397 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2397 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 8 Feb 2002 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know what types of bynames would be appropriate with the 9th century Frankish feminine name <Alia>. Here is the information we have found. As we mentioned in our last letter [1], most people in 9th century France did not have bynames or surnames according to the usual notion of these terms. In examples that we found, the few people identified with more than one element names were usually recorded as being known by a different name, in the form of "X, also known as Y." Here are some examples that we found (all recorded in Latin): [2] Grimo qui et Adalgisus, "Grimo, who [is] also Adalgisus" Erempertus qui et Atto, "Erempertus, who [is] also Atto" Aldigerus alias Ermenulfus, "Aldigerus, also known as Ermenulfus" Adelberga quae cognominabatur Ava, "Adelberge, who was called Ava" Atta sive Angilsuinda, "Atta, or Angilsuinda" Not all of these are from the 9th century, but they are typical of the types of descriptions that we found. It's not clear why a person was known by different names. In some cases it seems as if one name is a pet form of the other, but in others, like <Grimo qui et Adalgisus>, there is no relationship between the two. It's possible that these people changed their names at some point or that they were known by two different names for reasons we simply don't understand. However, we are certain that on any particular occasion, a person would have been called by one name or the other, not both at once. We have collected a number of more popular feminine names from your period: any of them would be appropriate to construct a name along the lines of "Alia, also known as <blank>." We would like to note that in such a name, the feminine form of the byname would be <quae>; <qui> is the masculine form. The following feminine names are all found in the 9th century. [3] Adalgardis Adelaidis Albrada Aliberta Alitrudis Ermengardis Ermensindis Harildis Arsindis, Airsenda Hildegardis Hildesendis, Eldesendis A second option would be a patronymic byname, one that indicated who your father was. Such a byname would be formed by using the Latin word <filia> 'daughter' along with the father's name in the genitive (possessive) case. Here is a list of common masculine names from your time period, and following it instructions on how to put them into the genitive case. Where we've listed more than one form on the same line, they are alternate Latin forms of the same Frankish name. [3] Adalbaldus Adalbertus Adalgarius Agilbertus, Ailbertus Albricus Autbertus, Otbertus Autgarius, Autgerius, Otgerius Balduinus Beraldus, Beroldus Bernardus, Barnardus Bernerius Bertramnus, Bertrannus, Bertrandus Tancradus, Tancredus Teutbaldus, Theutbaldus Teutbertus, Teotbertus, Tetbertus Theodericus, Teodericus, Theoricus Everardus, Evrardus Arcambaldus Frotharius, Frotarius Fulcarius Fulcradus Gerbertus Gerhardus Gauzbertus Gaucelmus, Gozhelmus, Gocelmus Gislarius Ramnulfus Rotbertus, Ruotbertus Hucbertus, Hugbertus Mainardus Odelricus, Odolricus Radulfus Ragambaldus, Raimboldus Raginarius, Reginarius Ragnaldus, Rainaldus, Raynoldus Sigebaldus, Sicbaldus Sigebertus Segoinus, Seguinus Gualtarius, Gualterus, Galterius Vuitardus, Guitardus Wilbertus, Guillabertus Vulfarius, Vulvarius, Uuolfarius Vulframnus All of these names are recorded in Latin; names ending in <-us> changed to <-i> in the genitive case; so a feminine patronymic formed from <Adalbaldus> would be <filia Adalbaldi>. The spoken (vernacular) forms of these names probably differed from the Latin, documentary forms that we have listed above. If you are interested in any particular name, we can research it and try to determine the vernacular form and its pronunciation. We'd like to apologize for how long it took us to finish this letter, and hope that it is still useful to you. Please do not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter were provided by Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 08Feb02 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Academy of S. Gabriel report #2353 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2353 [2] Stark, Franz, _Die Kosenamen der Germanen_ (Wiesbaden: Dr. Martin Sa:ndig oHG., 1967 [1868]). pp.150-1. [3] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, volume 1 (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972). 15a, 15b, 16a, 16b, 23a, 29b, 32a, 32b, 43a, 43b, 50b, 52b, 53b, 56a, 65a, 67a, 67b, 69b, 70a, 77a, 77b, 80a, 82b, 83a, 90a, 95a, 99a, 99b, 104b, 105b, 110b, 126a, 127a, 129b, 131b, 135a, 136a, 140a, 165b, 176a, 182b, 183b, 185a, 185b, 197a, 197b, 199a, 213b, 221a, 224b, 230a, 230b