ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2676 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2676 ************************************ From: "Lisa and Ken Theriot" 14 Jul 2003 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a man living in late-12th century to early 13th century England. You were also interested in designs for arms featuring a white or silver decrescent on a black field. Here is the information we have found. First, we'd like to apologize for your long wait for this report. We hope the information is still of use to you. As you mentioned in your correspondence, we have previously discussed the development of the form from the Old English name <{AE}{dh}elric> in a past Academy report available on the web [1]: http://www.s-gabriel.org/1346 After the Norman Conquest, the spelling of many Old English names became a complex business: some documents continued to use Old English spellings, while others used spellings that were more consistent with documentary Latin style, and still others attempted to render names phonetically using European spelling conventions. As a result, one name might be spelled in many different ways, not all of which accurately reflected how the name was actually pronounced. was definitely such a name. We find recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 and a form of again in court proceedings written in Latin sometime between 1182 and 1272 [2, 3]. Accordingly, we cannot say that the spelling is impossible for you, but we'd caution that this is quite an unusual spelling; furthermore, it suggests an incorrect pronunciation, since this name was not pronounced anything like \AL-rik\. The most common form of <{AE}{dh}elric> we have found after the Norman Conquest was , though we usually find it in Latin documents as and a variety of other similar forms [4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. The spoken form represented by the various documentary forms was pronounced roughly \EYL-reetch\, where \EY\ sounds like the word [9]. By your period, the French practice of spelling the sound \tch\ as rather than Old English was becoming common [10]. Accordingly, would likely be the most typical non-Latinized spelling for your culture; we find this spelling recorded in 1228 [6]. The most common Latin form we have found in our research is . The byname is based on a French placename [11]. We have found only one person who used a byname like in an English context: the Norman Robert of Belesme (also ), Seigneur (Lord) of Belle^me in France and third Earl of Shrewsbury, who was born about 1052 and was still living in 1130 [12]. (The ^ represents a circumflex over the preceding letter.) His byname appears in contemporary English records in the Latin form 'of Belle^me' [13]. Other known Latin forms are 1092, possibly from a French source, and , from English sources of unknown date. [11, 14] We are not sure how the byname would have been written in Old French, either in Robert's period or in yours, but by your period and are the likeliest possibilities; they were pronounced roughly \d@ b@-LAYM-@\, where \@\ stands for the sound of in and . Though both elements are fine recreations for your period and culture, we believe the combination is quite unlikely. , since it was a form of an Old English name, was typically used by native Englishmen. The byname may never have been established in England beyond the unique example of Robert; at best, it was extremely rare. We haven't found any examples of combined with a Norman locative byname like , nor have we found any examples of or any other Norman locative associated with Norman nobility in combination with a linguistically English given name. However, it is not impossible that if your father (or perhaps even grandfather) had come from Belesme you might continue to use the byname. If your name appeared in Latin records, it would likely be in the form . We believe the likely vernacular or spoken form was , pronounced \EYL-reetch d@ b@-LAYM-@\. If you'd like ideas on given names more appropriate for combining with , or bynames more appropriate with , please write again and we'll be happy to help you. You wanted to know about designs using a white or silver decrescent on a black field. The heraldic term for white or silver is "argent" and the term for black is "sable". Heraldic arms began appearing in several parts of Western Europe in the early to mid-12th century; by the last quarter of the century they were widely used, especially in England, NW France, and the Low Countries. Arms in your period were quite simple. We find crescents used in early armory: they appear in a manuscript ca. 1244 in the canting arms of , "Or, three crescents gules" [15]. ("Canting" is a practice in heraldry where a pictorial reference to the family name is made in the armory, in this case "crescent" for .) We also find the following designs [15, 16]: Argent, three crescents sable (de Haselington), ca. 1275 Sable crusily argent, six crescents or (de Blare), ca. 1285 Gules, three crescents ermine (de Freville), ca. 1285 Though they are quite common in SCA armory, we have not found decrescents, basically a crescent on its side, like the letter , in armory until well after your period [17]. We recommend that you avoid them in favor of plain (upright) crescents. Based on the examples above, we can recommend the following designs for you: Argent, three crescents sable. Sable, six crescents argent. The crescents are arranged with three across the top, two in the middle, and one in base. Sable, three crescents ermine. Ermine is a term meaning a white background covered with small black spots like the black tip at the end of an ermine's tail. There are illustrations available on the web, including: www.heraldica.org/topics/glossary/pics/027.jpg ftp://ftp.farreaches.org/pub/heraldry/graphics/ermine.gif Any of these designs is an excellent example of the heraldic style of your culture, and we believe you can register any of them with the SCA College of Arms. 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 Anplica dell'Isola, Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Iago ab Adam, Mari neyn Brian, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Teceangl Bach, and Wes Will. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 14 July 2003 References: [1] {AE} and {dh} stand for the Old English letters 'ash' and 'edh' respectively. The ash is a ligature (joining) of and in which the vertical line of the is used as the right-hand upright of the . It represents the sound of the in . The edh is a in which the ascender curls over to the left (like a backwards <6>) and is crossed by a short stroke. It represents the sound of the in and . [2] von Feilitzen, Olof. The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book (Uppsala: 1937), p. 186ff. [3] Nicolaa de Bracton, "A Statistical Survey of Given Names in Essex Co., England, 1182-1272", Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings 1995 (SCA Inc.; WWW: privately published, 1997). The names in this article were normalized from Latin forms; the name noted as probably appeared in a Latin form or in the patronymic form 'son of Alricus'. ("Patronymic" refers to a surname based on your father's given name.) http://members.tripod.com/nicolaa5/articles/names.html [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.nn. Aldrich, Allright. Under , the examples include a given name citation = in 1220 and a patronymic byname in 1209. [5] Stacy, N.E., ed. Surveys of the Estates of Glastonbury Abbey c. 1135-1201 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). Examples include ten instances of or 'of Ailricus', two of , and one each of and . (The last is quite unusual and we don't believe it reflects common usage or pronunciation.) [6] Selte/n, Bo, _The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names_, Volumes 1 & 2 (Lund, Sweden: Royal Society of Letters at Lund, 1979), volume 2, p. 32. Examples include given names (appearing three times), , , and 1186-88, 1205, 1228. Here the apostrophe represents a missing letter or letters. Patronymic bynames include 1165 = 1166, and 1186-88, 1202, 1223 = 1223 = 1223, 1228. Here the letter is an abbreviation for the Latin word 'son'. [7] Von Feilitzen, Olof. 'The Personal Names and Bynames of the Winton Domesday', in Martin Biddle, ed., _Winchester in the Early Middle Ages_, Winchester Studies 1 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1976), p. 147. Examples include (appearing twice) and from 1148. [8] Clark, Cecily, "Some Early Canterbury Surnames", in Cecily Clark, _Words, Names and History: Selected Papers_, ed. Peter Jackson (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995), p. 211 has ca.1200 and <{AE}lrici> and ca.1206. [9] The spellings probably represent a pronunciation with a slightly different diphthong, \Aee\ (with \A\ as in ) rather than \AHee\ (= \EY\ expanded to show the elements of the diphthong); to most Americans it probably sounds halfway between \EY\ and \AY\ (as in ). We have also found an East Anglian form , probably representing a variant pronunciation \AL-reetch\. [10] Mosse/, Ferdinand, _A Handbook of Middle English_, trans. James A. Walker (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1968), pp. 136, 139, 150, 152, 157. These works were written during the mid- to late- 12th century and very early 13th century. [11] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963), s.n. Balesmes. [12] "Robert of Belesme" in Vol. VIII of the Microp{ae}dia , Encyclop{ae}dia Britannica (15th edition, 1983). [13] McKinlay, Richard, _The Surnames of Sussex_, English Surname Series V (Oxford: Leopard's Head Press, 1988), p. 32. [14] Martin, Charles Trice, _The Record Interpreter: A Collection of Abbreviations, Latin Words and Names Used in English Historical Manuscripts and Records_, 2nd ed. (London: Stevens and Sons, 1949), p. 430. [15] Wagner, Anthony Richard, ed. Aspilogia II: Rolls of Arms: Henry III (London: The Society of Antiquaries, 1967). Tremlett's edition of the Matthew Paris shields in Aspilogia II, p. 42. Tremlett notes that Roger died ca. 1245 and that at some point in the 13th c. he sealed with seven crescents. The arms of appear on page 200. [16] Brault, Gerald J., _The Rolls of Arms of Edward I_, Aspilogia III, 2 vols. (London: Boydell Press, 1997), volume 2, pp. 56, 185. Adam de Blare is given 'Sable crusily argent, six crescents or' in St. George's Roll and Charles' Roll (both ca.1285) but 'Sable crusily and three crescents argent' in the Heralds' Roll (ca.1279). [17] Pastoureau, Michel, _Traite/ d'He/raldique_, 2nd ed. (Paris: grands manuels Picard, 1993), Pl. 1, opposite p.64. The illustration is a page from the Bellenville Roll (ca. 1375) showing the arms of the Archbishop of Trier and his vassals, one of whom bears "Per pale mullety of six points or and gules, in dexter a decrescent or".