ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2715 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2715 ************************************ 28 Mar 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked when and where the feminine name was used. Here is what we've found. is an English adaptation of the ancient Greek name or , the name of the wife of Odysseus. The slash here represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. stands for the Greek letter eta, as opposed to which stands for epsilon. We have found one instance of this name in classical or early medieval Greece, recorded sometime before 600 AD, in a Greek spelling that transliterates to [2]. We have found no other evidence that the name was used before the second half of the 16th century, when it was used in England for the daughter of the Earl of Essex [1]. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Ursula Georges, and Maridonna Benvenuti. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 28 Mar 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Penelope. The Greek forms are transliterated from the Greek alphabet. [2] Fraser, P.M., and E. Matthews, "The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names" (WWW: Oxford University, 1998). Attic eta becomes alpha in most Greek dialects, especially the western ones. This source contains names found in "all available sources, from the earliest Greek written records to approximately the sixth century A.D.", but does not provide dates for individual citations. We therefore cannot date the name more precisely. http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/