ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2663 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2663 ************************************ From: Sara L Friedemann 02 Feb 2003 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if the name was ever used by women in England before 1600. Here is the information we have found. Many names that are modernly considered solely masculine or solely feminine were used by both genders in England during the Middle Ages. [1] English men named were often recorded in Latin documents as . We found some examples of women recorded in Latin documents as ; this likely represents a vernacular (spoken) name of . We even have one explicit example of a woman who died in 1333 who was recorded as both and . [1] We also found a woman named in 1602, as well as a Scottish woman named in 1512. [2,3] Given these examples, we can recommend as a feminine name for the 14th through early 17th centuries. It was never common, but it was certainly in use. If you'd like help finding an authentic surname to go with , we can recommend the articles linked from the following two sections of the Medieval Names Archive: English Names 1300 to 1450 http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/eng1300to1450.shtml English Names 1450-1600 http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/eng1450to1600.shtml 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. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Arval Benicoeur, Maridonna Benvenuti, Adelaidis de Bellomonte, Maria filia Briani, Tangwistel filia Morganti, Talanus Albus, Julie Stampnitzky, and Ursula filia Georgii. For the Academy, -Argantgui filia Catmaili, 02Feb03 -- References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.n. Jacoba The introduction contains a discussion of this, including a number of examples of names that were used unisexly in England. Some of these names are , which was mostly feminine but also used by men; , which was commonly used by both men and women; , , , and were almost exclusively women's names, whereas today they are generally men's. and were also used by both men and women. This is just a handful; and given this trend, as a feminine name is not surprising at all. [2] Marriages from the Newcastle St Andrews Registers (1600-1649) http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/Transcriptions/NBL/NSA1600.html This could either be a form of , or a misreading of , , or . [3] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Early 16th Century Scottish Lowland Names" (WWW: Privately published: 2001) http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/lowland16/ -- vita sine literis mors est http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana