ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2502 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2502 ************************************ From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 28 Mar 2002 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to known if or is an appropriate name for a 13th century English woman whose family came to England during the Norman Conquest. Here is the information we have found. As you discovered, is a fine name for a 13th century English woman [1]. We also find it recorded in 13th century France, so it especially appropriate for a woman from a Norman family [2]. In 13th century England, we believe it was pronounced \AH-m@-loht\, where \@\ represents the sound of in and , and \oh\ represents the sound of in . In your own research, you found that the family name or originally refered to a town in France. There is a modern town called in Normandy; it had a similar name in the 9th century [3]. We found several instances of English bynames that appear to be based on this placename [4, 5, 6]: Dakeny, 1241-1269, 1286, 1367 Dakigny, c. 1270 Dakeni, 1285 de Akeney, 1295 Any of these forms fits your period. Normal French practice is to contract the preposition to before words beginning with a vowel, as in 'of Acquigny'. English documentary practice in your period was different. If the place-name began with a vowel, the preposition was sometimes contracted to and fused to the place-name without any apostrophe, as in . More often, however, it was left as an independent word, as in . We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Angharat ver' Reynulf, Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Julie Stampnitzky and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 28 March 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html [3] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963), s.n. Acquigny. The town was recorded as in 876. [4] Brault, Gerald J., _The Rolls of Arms of Edward I_, Aspilogia III, 2 vols. (London: Boydell Press, 1997), vol. II, s.n. Dakeny. [5] Wagner, Anthony Richard, ed. Aspilogia II: Rolls of Arms: Henry III (London: The Society of Antiquaries, 1967), p. 124. [6] Our data indicates that at some point, the name seems to have become confused with or , which is a form of . For example, we find a man recorded in a Latin document in 1275 as [7]; if he had a son named his son could have been recorded in Latin as , 'John, (son) of Dayken'. Accordingly, we can't be sure whether all our examples represent names based on the placename or on the given name , though the form is clearly based on a placename. [7] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Daykin.