ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2649 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2649 ************************************ 25 Mar 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked when the name was used in France, specifically in Calais; and you asked if we could suggest a surname that derived from a phrase meaning "lily merchant", "flower merchant", or the like. Here is what we have found. Your name appears in the spelling in records from Calais around 1300 [1]. The forms , and others are recorded in other regions of northern France in the 13th century; and in the 14th century; in the 15th century; and and in the 16th [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. is a fine choice for Calais and most of northern France at least for the 13th century and later. As we explained in our previous notes, in the 13th and 14th centuries, the French used "bynames", i.e. literal descriptive surnames. A woman named who came from Calais could have been identified as . By the 15th and 16th century, the French had largely adopted inherited family names, so that Isabel the daughter of Martin Calais would have been called (or perhaps , using the feminine form of the surname), regardless of whether she or her father had ever lived in Calais. The surname, in that spelling, has existed at least since the late 13th century: We have found 1296, 1296, and others recorded in Calais [1]. There is a modern French surname which may derive from the name of the flower, but we're not certain of that derivation [8, 9] and we haven't found an example of it in our pre-1600 sources. The word "lily" was used at least from the late 12th century, so it is a plausible byname or family name [10]. If you would be equally happy with a name that sounds like -- for example, so that you could use fleurs de lis on your arms to cant on your name -- then you might consider , a surname derived from a form of the given name , recorded in Calais around 1300 [1]. It was probably more widespread than that, as it gave rise to a fairly common modern surname [9]. is an excellent Calaisienne name for any time from the late 13th century to the end of our period. Another possibility is , a surname based on one of several places in France. One of these places is near Chateauroux, another near Chartes [11]. The latter appears as in 1389, in 1579 [12]. is a fine 15th or 16th century French name. If you want a surname that specifically means "flower merchant", then we suggest , which appears in a Paris census of 1292 [13, 14]. 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 Adelaide de Beaumont, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 25 Mar 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Gysseling, Maurits, and Pierre Bougard, _L'Onomastique Calaisienne a la Fin du 13e Siecle_, Onomastica Neerlandica (Leuven: Institut voor Naamkunde, 1963), s.nn. Ysabel, Calais. [2] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). [3] Jacobsson, Harry, _E/tudes d'Anthroponymie Lorraine les Bans de Tre/fonds de Metz (1267-1298)_ (Go:teborg: Gumperts Fo:rlag, 1955). [4] Bougard, Pierre, and Maurits Gysseling, _L'Impot Royal en Artois (1295-1302): Ro^les du 100e et du 50e pre/sente/s et publie/s avec une table anthroponymique, Me/moires de la Commission Royale de Toponymie et de Dialectologie #13 (Louvain: Imprimerie Orientaliste, B.P. 41, 1970). [5] 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 [6] Cateline de la Mor, "Sixteenth Century Norman Names" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/cateline/norman16.html [7] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "French Names from Paris, 1423 & 1438" (WWW: privately published, 2002). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/paris1423.html [8] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Lis. He derives from the flower name, used either to denote purity or as an occuaptional byname for a gardener. [9] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de Famille_ (Librairie Acade/mique Perrin, 1997), s.n. Lise. She has no entry for and does not mention the flower origin for any related name. [10] Greimas, Algirdas Julien, _Dictionnaire de l'ancien franc,ais_ (Paris: Larousse, 1997), s.v. lil. is the objective case, the nominative case of the Old French word for "lily". [11] Dauzat s.n. Delys. [12] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963), s.n. Lys (1). [13] Geraud, Hercule, _Paris sous Philippe-le-Bel: d'apre/s des documents originaux et notamment d'apre/s un manuscript contenant Le Ro^le de la taille impose/e sur les habitants de Paris en 1292; re/production de l'e/dition de 1837, accompagne/e d'un avant-propos et d'un index des noms de personne contenus dans 'Le Ro^le de la Taille' de 1292 par Caroline Bourlet et Lucie Fossier_ (Tu"bingen: Max Neimeyer Verlag, 1991). [14] Geraud, Hercule, _Paris sous Philippe-le-Bel: d'apre/s des documents originaux et notamment d'apre/s un manuscript contenant Le Ro^le de la taille impose/e sur les habitants de Paris en 1292_ (Paris : Crapelet, 1837), p.510.