ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2700 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2700 ************************************ 27 May 2003 From: "Anplica Dell'Isola" Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked whether was used in Sweden in the late 1400s, and whether it is possible to create an authentic name meaning "Krysta the little" or "little Krysta". Although the records we searched do not include a , we did find a single example of in Denmark in 1414, perhaps a short form of the feminine name . Substituting for is unlikely: they represented different sounds in medieval Danish. Judging from other Danish names beginning with , the and spellings were much more common than , but did occur [1]. or are the most typical spellings, but is also fine. Since we found your given name, in Denmark, we looked at Danish sources for the rest of your name. We found many examples of 15th century names with bynames that mean "little" [2]: Bo Lille 1410 Lille Pouell Niels[on] 1412 Litl{ae} Erik 1416 P{ae}dher Lill{ae} 1419 Pether Litle 1445 Lill Oleff 1420 Lille Marin{ae} 1379-1428 Katerina Lilla 1379-1428 Jepp Litle 1437 Litle Hemmingh 1440 Lille Jepp 1442 {ae} represents an 'a' and an 'e' written so that they share a common vertical stroke. Note that the nickname can come either before or after the given name. We recommend , and as fine 14th century Danish names. would likely be pronounced \KREES-tah LEEL-l@\, where the the \EE\ is short in duration and \@\ is the sound of in . If you would rather go with a Swedish persona, we did find some examples of Swedish bynames that mean "little" [3]: Lill{ae} Oghe 1491 aff lille Aake j Arboge 1513 lill{ae} Bernd 1462 litzle Berendh Haka 1499 Litzle Bi{o|}rn Sywrdsson 1490 Lytle Bi{o|}rn 1490 {o|} represents a slashed-o. Note that the nickname comes before the given name, and the given name may or may not be followed by second byname. If you would like to have a Swedish persona, the best place to find an appropriate name is at http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/smp/. We hope this letter has been useful to you. Please contact us again if you need further advice. We were assisted in this search by Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Ursula Georges, Safya al-Mughanniiyah bint Ziyad al-Misri, and Blaise de Cormeilles. For the Academy, Gerita del Mare and Anplica Dell'Isola May 27, 2003 ______________________________________________ References: [1] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48), s.n. Krista. [2] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol II: Tilnavne (Copenhagen: 1949-64), s.n. Litle. [3] Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn, vol. 1 (Uppsala: Almkvist & Wiksells, 1967-); h. 1, cols. 34, 35; h. 2, col. 301; h. 3, col. 340.