ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2748 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2748 ************************************ 25 Apr 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an Anglo-Norman man between 1150 and 1250. Here is what we've found. Your given name is an excellent choice: was a very common name in England in your period [1, 2]. Essentially all records from England in your period are in Latin, so we can't be certain of the form of the name in Anglo-Norman French. We think it probably was ; in Latin writing, it was (or some other grammatical form of the same). is not a good choice for your surname. In the name of the French king , it was a very rare example of a second given name, probably added to distinguish him from his father Philip. We don't find used as a given name or surname in England until well after 1600. The most similar English name we can suggest is , a given name used occasionally by the Normans. We found several examples [3, 4, 5]: Augustinus cantor 1153-68 Augustin Acerisis 1273 John Augustyn 1273 "John [son of] Augustyn" Mariota fil. Augustin 1273 "Mariota daughter of Augustin" Nicholas Augustin 1275 "Nicholas [son of] Augustin" In Anglo-Norman, the name was probably more often used in the contracted form [3, 4, 5]: Austinus 1189-1213 Austinus de Bernardeston 1224 Austinus de Beston' 1230 Astin 1273 Henry Austin 1275 (given name may be a modern English form) The Norman name or would have been understood to mean "Robert son of Augustin/Austin". It would have been written in Latin, most likely as or . 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, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 25 Apr 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] 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). http://members.tripod.com/nicolaa5/articles/names.html [2] Talan Gwynek, "Given Names from Early 13th Century England" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/eng13/ [3] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.nn. Augustine, Augustus. [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.nn. Austen, Augustin. [5] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.n. Augustine.