ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2641 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2641 ************************************ 20 Jul 2003 From: Raquel Buenaventura Greetings From The Academy of St. Gabriel! You wrote to us asking if the name would be a good choice for an Italian woman living between 1000 and 1600. Here's what we've been able to find out about the name. We have not found any evidence of being used in any culture during this time, but we think that it is probably a spelling variation of . This is a Spanish name, which is believed to be a shortened form of , a name describing one of the attributes of the Virgin Mary. The earliest use of this name that we've been able to find is found in Spain in 1690. (1) (2) According to our sources on Italian names, was initially only used in Italy by Spanish immigrants. (3) Since the name does not appear to have been used in Spain before the end of the 1600s, we believe it would not have been used in Italy before then, and certainly not before 1600. One of our sources suggests that the form might have been used much earlier in Italian, but it cites no solid evidence. If it were used, it would have been pronounced \mehr-TCHEH-deh\. (4) The name was in use as a given name in Italy during the period you are interested in, and a number of family names developed from its use. The surname was probably in use by the late 16th century.(5) For an earlier time period, an Italian woman named Giovanna whose father was named Cesare could have been known as Giovanna di Cesare. You could use this form of name alone, or with another surname added. To sum up: we have no evidence that was used either in Spain or Italy during the period you're interested in, and believe that it must be a modern spelling. was not used in Spain, so far as we can tell, before 1600, and we would not recommend its use for either a Spanish or Italian name before the seventeenth century. is a similar name which is possibly appropriate to Italy in your period, but we do not have solid evidence of its use. Therefore, we would recommend that you choose a name we know to have been used in Italy before 1600. We have no evidence that was used as a surname before 1600, however appeared during the 1500s, and would be appropriate earlier. 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Arval Benicoeur, Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek, Juliana de Luna, and Maridonna Benvenuti. For the Academy, Raquel Bonastruch July 19, 2003 _____________________________________________________________ (1) Laurel Letter of Acceptances and Returns, September 1998 (WWW: SCA, Inc.), Returns, Ansteorra, Mercedes de la Cerdana. http://www.sca.org/heraldry/loar/1998/09/lar.html (2) Menedez-Pidal, Ramon, "Onomastica inspirada en el culto marianico", 1 Cuadernos del Idioma: Revista de Cultura y Pensamento 9-16 (1965). (3, 4) De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei nomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan, 1992) s.n. Mercedes (5) De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei cognomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978).