ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2650 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2650 ************************************ 25 Mar 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a medieval or renaissance French woman. Here is what we have found. The region we think of as France was home to more than one language in our period. The main division was between French, spoken in the northern two-thirds of the modern nation, and Occitan (also called Provencal), spoken in the south. Occitan is a different language from French, another Romance language more closely related to Catalan. is a fine name, though it appears to have been fairly rare in medieval France and Occitania. We know of examples of in 11th century Anjou and Berry, 12th century Anjou, the Limousin, and the Dauphine/; and French in 14th century Blois and 16th century Normandy [1, 2]. On the other hand, the name didn't become common in the Limousin until the 16th and 17th century [3]. The spellings are Latinized in some cases, but this is probably also the vernacular form in Occitan. The slash in "Dauphine/" represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. The word "wood, forest" is Occitan rather than French. The Occitan equivalent of the French word was or , depending on dialect [4, 5]. We have found the surname recorded around 1500 in Bordeaux -- in the northwestern corner of the Occitan region [6]. is fine choice for the Occitan region at least in this period. However, is also recorded in 16th century Normandy [2], well north of the Occitan-speaking region. This man might have been a migrant. certainly appears to be correct for 16th century Normandy, but since we don't know how this surname came to be used in that region, we don't recommend using it for a Norman much earlier than this. 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 Ursula Georges, Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Giles Leabrook, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 25 Mar 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] "Noms de Femmes Releve/s dan les Divers Cartulaires E/tudie/s" in Monique Bourin and Pascal Chareille, eds., Gene\se Me/die/vale de l'Anthroponymie Moderne (Tours: Universite/ de Tours, 1992), t.II, pp.231-242. [2] 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 [3] Perouas, L., B. Barrie\re, B., J. Boutier; J.-C. Peyronnet, & J. Tricard, _Le/onard, Marie, Jean et les Autres: Les Pre/noms en Limousin depuis un Mille/naire (Paris: E/ditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1984), pp.72-3. [4] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Bosc. [5] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de Famille_ (Librairie Acade/mique Perrin, 1997), s.n. Dubos. [6] Aryanhwy merch Catmael (Sara L. Friedemann) and Talan Gwynek (Brian M. Scott), "Names Found in Commercial Documents from Bordeaux, 1470-1520" (WWW: privately published, 2000). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/bordeaux.html