ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2532 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2532 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 21 Apr 2002 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if the feminine name or anything similar was used in Swedish before 1600. You also asked about the name (where the | represents a slash through the ). Here is a brief letter with the information we have found. We were unable to find , or any feminine name beginning with or in medieval Swedish. It is not entirely impossible that some feminine form of was used in Swedish and Danish by the end of the 16th century. Masculine forms of this name are found in Norway and Denmark as far back as the early 14th century, with found at the end of the 14th century, and in the 15th. [2,3] was a particularly common masculine name in Swedish in the 16th century. [4] However, we have not explicitly found any feminine forms, and so do not know what they would look like; our data shows that feminine forms came into use only after our period [5], so we recommend against using one in a re-creation of pre-1600 Scandinavia. If you are interested in Swedish feminine names beginning with , we can offer the following suggestions: [1] Lucie 1334, 1338, 1350, 1456 Lucia 1349, 1449, 1508, 1521 Luci 1468 Lwci 1481 Lussci 1502 Lucj 1516, 1517, 1523 Lusi 1518, 1524 Lussi 1522 Lucij 1525 Lyzabetz 1496 Your second choice, , is an excellent name. is a form of , which was a popular name in Sweden due to veneration of the saint with this name. Though this particular spelling is rather unusual, it is found in 1507. [1,6] The byname , meaning "red," is found in 1505. [1] would have been pronounced \beer-YIT-tah RO"-d@\, where \O"\ is as in German . More precisely, it is the vowel you get by pronouncing the in with your lips pursed and rounded. The \@\ is the sound of in or . We hope that this brief 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, Arval Benicoeur, Ursula Georges, Lindorm Eriksson, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 21Apr02 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Friedemann, Sara L., "Swedish Feminine Given Names from _SMP_" (WWW: privately published, 2001) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/smp/. [2] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48). s.n. Laurentius [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.n. Lafranz [4] Academy of S. Gabriel report 2296 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2296 [5] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed. _Norsk personnamnleksikon_, 2nd ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1995). s.n. Laura. The earliest that we see a feminine form of in this source is in 18th C Norway. [6] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_ bd. 1, h. 3, (Uppsala: 1967, ISBN 91-7192-123-8), col. 408, s.n. Go|staff. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Corrected, 22 Aug 2003, Arval: Corrected the countries in which early forms of appear.