ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2624 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2624 ************************************ From: Sara L Friedemann 13 Dec 2002 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate name for a Norse man living around 1100. If was not a good choice, you wanted to know if there was some form of that would be correct. Here is the information we have found. Your first choice is excellent with only minor changes. The standard form of a name meaning "Magnus, son of Magnus" for your period is . Here, the slash represents an acute accent over the previous letter. [1] The change from to is a requirement of Norse grammar; it's analogous to the difference between and in English. This name was pronounced \MAGH-noos MAGH-noo-sar sohn\. Here, the \GH\ is a voiced \KH\, which is the sound of in Scottish or German , and \oh\ is the sound of in . is an Old English name, and thus not appropriate for a Norseman. The Old Norse cognate of is . [3] This name was never common, and thus it is not as good a choice as for your given name. [1,2] During the Middle Ages, the Scandinavian cultures wrote with runes rather than the Roman alphabet. If you'd like to know what the runic spelling of your name would have been, please write us again and we'll be happy to help you. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Adelaide de Beaumont, Arval Benicoeur, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Argantgui filia Catmaili, 13Dec02 -- References [1] 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. Magnu/s, Ulfgeirr [2] Uppsala University Department for Scandinavian Languages, "Samnordisk runtextdatabas" (WWW: Uppsala universitet, 29 Oct 1997) http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm [3] In later periods, it was spelled . [1,2] --