ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2417 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2417 ************************************ 29 Jan 2002 From: Raquel Buenaventura Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You wrote to us asking about the given name which you believe is a Jewish name from the period between 1400 and 1600. You were interested in using it as a name in the SCA, and said you would be interested in a name that sounds similar. Here's what we've found: appears to be a modern anglicization of a Hebrew form of , but we have found no evidence that it existed before 1600. The name appears in records of Eastern European Jewish communities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries [1]. We also found a modern reference to , who we believe is the same person as the Chasidic teacher Rabbi Yehiel Michael of Zloczow who lived from 1731 to 1786; but we found no evidence that the spelling was used in his lifetime [2, 3]. If you are interested in using a form of , we can suggest some possibilities, as the name was used by Jewish men during your period. These examples are from France and the German states [4]: Michaellis filius Symonid (Chambery, 1400) Michael von Zons (Frankfurt, 1495) Michel (Niedersaulnheim 1550) Michel juif (Metz 1567) In short, we were not able to find any evidence for or anything quite like it being in use as a late-period Jewish masculine name. If you would like to find a suitable byname for a Jewish man named or living between 1400 and 1600, or to find names appropriate to a particular area during that period, we will do our best to help you. I hope that this letter has been helpful. Please do not hesitate to write again if any part of it was unclear, or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Julie Stampnitzky, Arval Benicoeur, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Barak Raz, Will Dekne, Dietmar von Straubing, Blaise de Cormeilles, and Teceangl Bach. For the Academy, Raquel Buenaventura January 29, 2002 --------------------------- References [1] "Korczyna Known to the Jews as KORCZYN" (WWW: JewishGen ShtetLinks, 1995-2001) http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/krosno/krosnokors.htm [2] "Parashat HaShavua: Shemini 5761" (WWW: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1998-2000) http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/parashah/5761/shemini.shtml. [3] Roth, Cecil (Ed.), _Encyclopedia Judaica_, (1971: Keter Publishing House Ltd., Jerusalem) article: "Jehiel Michael ("Michel") of Zloczow." [4] Le/vy, Paul, Les Noms des Israe/lites en France: Histoire et Dictionnaire, (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1960) s.n. Michael