ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2528 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2528 ************************************ 15 Apr 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Swedish woman in the second half of the 15th or the 16th century. You also asked our opinion of the byname . (The double-quote represents two dots over the preceding letter.) Here is a brief answer to your question. Your name is fundamentally fine, though we will recommend a different spelling of your surname. is a fine form of a name that was very common in late-period Sweden. This particular spelling was recorded in 1425; some 16th century spellings are [1]: Christina Cristin Cristina Kirstin Kirstinn Kyrstin Kyrstine was also a common Swedish name in your period, but we haven't found the spelling . Spellings we've seen in 16th century records include [2, 3]: Olaf Olaff Oleff Olff Ola*ff Oluff Olloff The symbol represents an 'a' with a small circle over it. Patronymic bynames -- surnames that identify a person as her father's child -- were formed in several ways in late-period Swedish. The most common were [3]: * The possessive form of the father's given name [4]. Cecilia Hindricz, 1500 * The possessive form of the father's full name [4]. Cecilia Jons Anderssons 1504 * The possessive form of the father's given name followed by the word or . Bygredh Olloffs dotther 1504 Birgitta Petherssdotther 1515 Sisilia Kotrzdotter 1513 We therefore recommend that you use a name like , , etc. Locative bynames -- those based on the place where a person lived -- were also common in late-period Sweden. They were often formed using the preposition or , pronounced \ee\ and meaning 'in' with either the name of a town or a generic topographical element. For example, we find 'Birgitta in Barckarlaby' in 1513 and 'Elin in the corner' in 1508. Some other forms include [3]: Cicilia oppo Gymmerstha 'up on Gymmerstha' 1514 Cecilia aff N{ae}rdewj 'of N{ae}rdewj' 1520 Anna pa* A*do"n 'of A*do"n' 1535 The symbol represents an 'a' with a small circle over it. {ae} stands for an a-e ligature, i.e. the two letters squashed together. Which preposition is appropriate in a byname depends on the particular place name (just as we would say 'on Martha's Vineyard' but 'in Boston'). We have not found any 16th century example of a locative byname that uses the preposition in exactly that spelling; we recommend the attested variant . The place name you asked about, , means 'Great/Good Fortress Thing'. That makes as much sense to our native Swedish member as the English translation does to the rest of us [5]. It doesn't match any pattern of Swedish place name formation that we've observed in period data. If you can tell us what meaning you had in mind, we may be able to suggest an authentic way of conveying the same idea. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, and Lindorm Eriksson. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 15 Apr 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "Swedish Feminine Given Names from SMP" (WWW: privately published, 2001). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/smp/. [2] Academy of Saint Gabriel report 2296 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2296 [3] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 1- (Uppsala: 1967-. bd. 1, h. 3: isbn: 91-7192-123-8; bd. 1, h. 4: isbn: 91-7192-223-7; bd. 1, h. 5: isbn: 91-7402-044-7; bd. 2, h. 6: isbn: 91-7402-104-4; bd. 2, h. 7: isbn: 91-7402-136-2, h. 8: isbn: 91-7402-115-x; bd. 2, h. 9: isbn: 91-88096-00-9; bd. 2, h. 10: isbn: 91-88096-01-7; Bloms Boktryckeri AB: Lund 1983 bd. 2), s.nn. Anna, Birgitta, Cecilia, Elena. [4] This example might also be based on the woman's husband's name. [5] Our Swedish member points out that in modern Swedish a 'fortress thing' would be a compund word: .