ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2667 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2667 ************************************ 15 Mar 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an Englishwoman in the 14th-16th centuries. Here is what we have found. is a Swedish name; we have found no evidence that it was used in England in our period. In Swedish, it is a diminutive form of that first appears in 1465 as and in 1521 as [1]. itself would be a fine alternative: It was quite common in England in your period [2]. You might also be interested in , the normal English form of in your period; or , a diminutive of that name [3]. A was mentioned in 1327 in Derbyshire [4]; another was recorded in Sussex in 1520 [5]. A man appears in records from Yorkshire in 1379 [8]. , in the Yorkshire West Riding, appeared as , , and in 1275, in 1277. The apostrophe, which appears in the original source, probably indicates that an 'e' has been omitted. The first element of this name also appears in the farm name 1267 [6, 7]. Without more data, we can't be sure how the name was spelled in your period. We suggest for the 14th century and for the 15th and 16th centuries. In common speech, a woman of your period would rarely have been identified by two surnames. or are fine choices. A scribe might have used both surnames in a formal document. Toward the beginning of your period, we'd expect that to appear as . Later, we wouldn't be surprised to see . 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, Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, and Maridonna Benvenuti. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 15 Mar 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "Swedish Feminine Given Names from SMP" (WWW: privately published, 2001). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/smp/ [2] Smith-Bannister, Scott. Names and Naming Patterns in England, 1538-1700 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997); pp. 196f. [3] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/ [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Grove. [5] Julian Goodwyn, "Brass Enscription Index" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997) http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/brasses/ [6] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), s.n. Scammonden. [7] Fellows Jensen, Gillian, _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968), 244f. [8] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.n. Grove.