ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2441 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2441 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 20 Jan 2002 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if or would be an appropriate given name for a Viking-era Norse woman. You also inquired about the bynames 'cat', 'moon-', and 'moon-cat'. (In these names, the <"> represents an umlaut over the previous letter, and the slash represents an accute accent.) Here is the information we have found. Both given names are fine choices. We found two examples of women named , who lived ca. 1000. [1,3] This name was pronounced \KOAL-fin-nah\. The standard scholarly spelling for the other name you are interested in is ; the represents an with a reversed comma hanging from its lower edge. This character is not found in most modern typescripts, and it has become usual to use instead. was less common than , though we did find an example of it as the name of an aunt of someone who died in 965. [3] While we have no other examples from the Viking era, we believe it would be a fine name, though it was certainly not very common. It was pronounced \KYOHL-vor\. The nickname 'cat' is found in the same time period as , ca. 1000. [4,5] It is a fine choice for your byname. It was pronounced \KOHTr\, where the \T\ is held for a moment before being released into the \r\, and the \r\ is only lightly pronounced. Although was a poetic word for 'moon,' [2] it does not appear to have been the source of the nickname . [2,3,5] There was also a given name , and the only known bearer of the nickname was a man named , who was the son of a man named . Since is the possessive form of , it seems likely that in this case simply meant 'Ma/ni's Lio/tr'. The word was used as a nickname placed after the given name, however, as in the early Icelandic name <{TH}orfi{dh}r mani Askels son>. [5] Thus, the name 'Kolfinna moon' is quite suitable for 11th and 12th century Iceland. was pronounced roughly \MAH-nee\. We have found no evidence that the construction 'moon's cat,' or anything similar in meaning, would be an appropriate Old Norse byname, and we recommend that you do not use it. If you would like to include both the elements and in your name, we can recommend an alternative. We have seen many examples of names that included both a descriptive nickname and a patronymic. Kolfinna daughter of Ma/ni who was known as "the cat" could have been called . [6] In your period, the Norse language was written with the runic alphabet (the futhark). If you would like to know an appropriate runic spelling of your name, please write us again and we'll be happy to research it. 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. Research and commentary on this letter were provided by Talan Gwynek, Lindorm Eriksson, Hartmann Rogge, Arval Benicoeur, and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 20Jan02 --------------------------------------- References & Notes: [1] Aryanhwy merch Catmael, "Viking Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: privately published, 1998) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.html [2] Cleasby, R., G. Vigfusson, & W. Craigie, _An Icelandic-English Dictionary_ (Oxford: At the University Press, 1975). s.vv. ma/ni, tungl. The usual Old Norse word for 'moon' is . [3] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). s.nn. Kolfinna, Kio,lvo,r, Ma/ni [4] Aryanhwy merch Catmael, "Viking Bynames Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: privately published, 1999) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/vikbynames.html [5] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21) s.vv. Ko,ttr, Ma/na-Lio/tr, Ma/ni [6] We don't recommend even if you are satisfied with the meaning "Ma/ni's Kolfinna, the cat," because we haven't seen examples of a name with descriptive bynames both before and after the given name.