Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 245

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 245

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/245

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Here's the information we found on the name "Arianne," in the context of 12th-century southern France.

We're not sure whether or not this could be a medieval name. We didn't find any examples of "Arianne" in France or Italy. We looked for circumstantial evidence which would suggest that "Arianne" could have been used as a name, but not enough to say confidently that the name could have been used.

One source on English names (1) said that "Ariane" was a French form of "Ariadne," the name of a character from Greek mythology. While some names from Greek mythology were used in period, only a few characters were used as namesakes. Our best source for French names doesn't list "Ariane" or "Arianna," so we can't be sure whether that derivation is reliable.

We did find the masculine name "Arianus" used in France in 878. "Arianus" could have been feminized to "Ariana," and this name could possibly have survived into the 12th century (possibly becoming "Ariane" in the process). However, this is a fairly long string of possibilities without evidence. If you're really interested in having a name from 12th-century southern France, we recommend that you look for names in histories of the culture.

Arval D'Espas Nord, Margaret Makafee, Zenobia Naphtali, and Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Withycombe, Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names