ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2662 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2662 ************************************ 11 Jun 2003 From: SARA LIANA FRIEDEMANN Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a Frenchman living between 700 and 1600. Here is the information we have found. Before I begin, we'd like to apologize for the amount of time it has taken us to complete your report. France today is a unified country with a common language. That was not true in our period: It was a collection of dialects, some quite similar, some quite different. The most significant division was between the langue d'oil, or French, spoken in the north, and the langue d'oc, also called Occitan or Provenc,al, spoken in the south. (Here, represents a c-cedilla). These were different languages, not just dialects of the same language, and names in them were often quite different. Since you did not specify where in France, or what time in particular you were interested in, we researched when and where this name would have been possible. As it turns out, the elements you've chosen were used in virtually your entire period in all parts of France. However, depending on the time and the dialect, the specific spellings that we will recommend will vary. The given name was already in use by 577, when it appears in a Latin record in the form . [1] By your period, however, the name had been simplified quite a bit in most dialects, and the written forms reflect this simplification. Almost all of our data for the period 700-1000 are from Latin records and show Latinized forms of the name. There was considerable variation, but it appears that the most common forms were and . [1,4] We did find two spellings that do not appear to have been Latinized, from the 9th or 10th century and from 827; they suggest that the spoken form was probably something like , pronounced roughly \BAIR-trahm\. [1] For the period 1000-1200 the picture changes a bit, and the most common Latin forms seem to be and . In this period the name was common only in Provence, though it occurs in smaller numbers just about everywhere in France. [4] Although we have no examples of the name in Old French, we can deduce from the Latinized forms and what is known of the history of Old French that there were probably two Old French versions of the name. One was (when used as the subject of a sentence) or (in most other uses); the other was (when used as the subject) or (in most other uses). These were pronounced roughly as follows: Bertrans \bair-TRAH~NS\ Bertran \bair-TRAH~N\ Bertranz \bair-TRAH~NTS\ Bertrant \bair-TRAH~NT\ (Here the tilde in \AH~\ indicates that the vowel was nasalized.) [11] In the 13th century the subject forms and began to lose the final \S\ sound, leaving only and . [12] At Paris, for instance, the name is recorded as in 1292. [5] There was still considerable variation, however. At Metz (Lorraine), where the name was moderately common, the forms most often recorded between 1267 and 1298, with their frequencies of occurrence, were as follows: [4] Bertran 60 Bertrans 56 Burteran 41 Burtran 26 Burtrans 22 Burterans 21 In Picardy, in the north of France, we find in the 13th century and , , , and in the 14th-15th centuries. [3] In the same period we find , , and at Nice, in the south of France. [2] The older form is recorded in the south in the 13th century, while is found at Toulouse c.1300 and in Foix in the 14th century. [6,8,10] Finally, the name is found at Bordeaux as , the usual modern form, between 1470 and 1520. [7] As you can see, in one form or another this name is reasonable throughout your period just about anywhere in France. You can also see that there was much variation in form. Nevertheless, we can summarize what appear the most common (or at least typical) forms as follows: 700-1000: , Latinized 1000-1200: , Latinized 1200-1400: 1400-1500: Your desired choice of would be most reasonable towards the end of your period. The modern place name takes its name from the Latin 'a mountain, a hill, a heap'. In various forms, place- names derived from this word or its plural occur in just about every part of France. We found it recorded as in 862 in Seine-et-Marne, 1026-1066 in Var, 1287 in Nie\vre (where the slash represents a grave accent on the ), 1104 in Pas-de-Calais, and 1257 in Meuse. [9] The in Var is still known today by this name. Therefore, is a fine byname from the mid-9th century on. Before then, the Latin form would be more usual. The Latin form, of course, would have been used throughout the Middle Ages whenever the byname was written down. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Maridonna Benvenuti, Arval Benicoeur, Adelaide de Beaumont, Anplica dell'Isola, Talan Gwynek, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, -Argantgui filia Catmaili, 11Jun03 -- References: [1] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972) I:56a [2] Compan, Andre/, _E/tude d'Anthroponymie Provenc,ale: Les Noms de Personne dans le Comte/ de Nice aux XIIe, XIVe, et XVe Sie\cles_, thesis at the Universite/ de Paris IV, Dec. 1975 (Paris: Librarie Honore Champion, 1976). [3] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). pp. 18, 305, 312 [4] Jacobsson, Harry, _E/tudes d'Anthroponymie Lorraine les Bans de Tre/fonds de Metz (1267-1298)_ (Go:teborg: Gumperts Fo:rlag, 1955). [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] Arval Benicoeur, "French Names from Two Thirteenth Century Chronicles" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/crusades/ [7] 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 [8] Cateline de la Mor, "Names from Fourteenth Century Foix" (SCA: Trimarian Known World Heraldic Symposium, AS XXIX; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/cateline/foix.html. [9] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963). s.n. Mons [10] Arval Benicoeur, "Languedoc Names circa 1300" (WWW: privately published, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/toulouse/ [11] Pope, M.K., _From Latin to Modern French_ (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1966), p. 311 [12] Einhorn, E., _Old French: A Concise Handbook_ (London & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1974), p. 19