ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2777 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2777 ************************************ From: "Lisa and Ken Theriot" 12 Nov 2003 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Russian man living in Novgorod, near St. Petersburg, sometime in the 15th or 16th century. Here is the information we have found. As you probably know, a Russian name in your period was commonly written using the Cyrillic alphabet. The modern Cyrillic alphabet became standard in the 20th century, after first undergoing major changes in the 18th century [1]. (The main writing system used in medieval Russian is now usually called Old Church Slavonic Cyrillic as it fell out of use everywhere except church texts.) In order to transcribe a name written in Cyrillic into Roman characters, several systems have been devised to accurately reproduce the name; you can find the modern Cyrillic alphabet and several widely-used transcription systems on the web [2]: A Dictionary of Period Russian Names--Preface http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/zpreface.html The names you've asked about have been transcribed in different systems, so we'll give you a couple of options for writing your full name using one system consistently. is a Russian form of or ; it is transcribed in the source at footnote [4] as . We find the name recorded in Novgorod in the 12th century [3]. We also find the following forms [4]: Zakharii Iakovlevich'. 1389-1415. Zakarii. 14th Century. Zakharei (Zakharei Sviiazev, royal scribe). Before 1147. Zakharie. 13th Century. Zakhariia (Old Testament prophet). Zakhariie (Zakhariie Olekshinich). 1262. Zachare (Zachare Jhezypisson, boiar). 1420. Zakhar (Zakhar Olferov). 1393. Zakhariash (Zakhariash Smeshko). 1598. Zakharka. First Half of 15th Century. Zakharko (Zakharko Ivanov). 1592. Zakhar' (Zakhar' Grigor'evich). Mid 15th Century. Zakhar'ia (Zakhar'ia Sharapov). 1459-69. Zakhar'iash (Zakhar'iash Zarutskoi). 1623-4. Zakhar'ka. 15th Century. The forms ending in <-ko> and <-ka> are pet forms, like for . It's possible that some of the others, like are also pet forms, but they may simply be variants of the standard name. It's likely that any of the forms above are reasonable choices for a man in the 15th or 16th century, simply because of the overwhelming popularity of saints' names in the naming pool [3, 4]. We find recorded in Novgorod in the 13th century; however, the name seems to have been more popular in Poland than in Russia. Novgorod was a trading center, and it was not unusual for foreigners to be recorded in period documents there. It appears in the following forms in Russian documents [4]: Zhiroslav, Novgorod captain. 1262-3. Zhiroslav'. 13th Century. Ziroslaw. 1236. Zyrislaus. 1201. Zyroslaus. 1223. The name appears in Polish documents (written in Latin) as in the 12th and 13th centuries [5]. (Note the forms ending in <-slaus> are Latinized, and would likely only appear in documents written in Latin.) The name survives in Poland as a patronymic byname, or a surname based on your father's given name; we find the following Polish examples [5]: Siroslawsky 1389 Syroslawsky 1452 Siroslawsky 1481 Ssyroslawsky 1484 Schyroslawsky 1492 Zyroslawski 1498 Szyroslawsky 1499 We have found no examples of patronymic bynames based on in Russian, so it's possible that the name wasn't used among ethnic Russians at all; it's more likely that the name simply fell out of fashion after the 13th century along with many other names of the same type [6]. We believe it is a plausible name for a Russian man in the 12th or 13th century, but we cannot recommend it as a good recreation for a Russian in the 15th or 16th century. Double given names are not uncommon in period Russian; a child was sometimes given a Christian (baptismal) name, usually that of a saint or religious figure, and an Old Russian name [7]. is a religious name, and is an Old Slavic name, so the two names fit the expected pattern. We don't have many examples where both names are recorded, however, so it's likely that a person chose one name or the other in daily use. Since we have no examples of dated after the 13th century, we can't recommend the double name much later than that. is a common patronymic byname, indicating that your father's given name is ; it is a fine choice. Here the apostrophe represents the so-called soft sign, one of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet. We find the following patronymic examples [3]: Vasil'ev. 13th Century. Vasil'evich (Great Prince Vasilii Vasil'evich). 1435. Vasileev [from Vasilei] (Dorofei Vasileev syn). 15th Century. Vasilev (Ofrem Oksenov syn Vasilev). 1623-4. Vasilevich (Gavrilo Vasilevich Bokii, Luts'k judge). 1554. Vasilievich (Onkif Vasilievich', Novgorod governor). 1471. Vasil'evich' (Gleb Vasil'evich', boiar). 1386. The forms ending in <-evich> often reflect a higher social status; they were especially popular in the region of Novgorod [8]. is a fine byname, but might be a superior choice for your particular area. In summary, is a plausible name for a 13th century man from Novgorod, but we don't believe was used in Russian much beyond that date. or is a fine name for a 15th or 16th century Novgorod man, however. These names are consistently spelled in the Library of Congress system [2]. They would appear transcribed as , , and in the system described in A Dictionary of Period Russian Names as "International Phonetic" [9, 10]. Here <^> indicates a hachek, or small shape, on top of the preceding letter. 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 Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Talan Gwynek, and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 12 November 2003 References: [1] Cubberly, Paul, 'The Slavic Alphabets', in _The World's Writing Systems_, ed. by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1996), Table 27.1 (p.348), p. 350. [2] There's one error in this chart; the author gives the letter as the Library of Congress transcription for both , the Russian character that looks like a backwards , and , which is with a breve, or small shape over it. The standard Library of Congress transcription for is a letter with a breve over it. We don't have access to the original Cyrillic material so we can't be sure, but we believe that all spellings taken from the source at footnote [4] which have a double represent / and should be transcribed in the Library of Congress system (here the asterisk indicates a breve) or in most international systems, at least insofar as they represent modern Cyrillic spellings. Unfortunately, we don't know how the author and his sources transcribed older material into modern Cyrillic, so in most cases we can't actually be sure what the original looked like. [3] Predslava Vydrina, "Russian Personal Names: Name Frequency in the Novgorod Birch-Bark Letters" in Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings 1997 (SCA: Rochester, NY, 1997; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1998). The spelling appears in a chart in this article, though you'll note that elsewhere throughout the article, the author uses . Either or are more standard transcriptions of the name. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/predslava/bbl/ [4] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names", 2nd edition (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1996). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/ [5] Taszycki, Witold (ed.), _S{l/}ownik Staropolskich Nazw Osobowych_, vols. I-VII (Wroc{l/}aw: Zak{l/}ad Narodowy Imienia Ossoli{n'}skich, Polska Akademia Nauk, 1965-1987), s.nn. , . Here {l/} represents the slashed used in modern Polish spelling. [6] Unbegaun, B. O., _Russian Surnames_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 9. The author notes that most pre-Christian Slavonic dithematic names (like from two Slavonic elements: meaning "wealth" and <-slav> "glory") did not survive in use past the 14th century. [7] ibid, p. 8. The author notes a dedication dated 1056-7 to a Governor of Novgorod, named as "in baptism Joseph, but in the world [named] Ostromir." [8] ibid, p. 12. The author states, "This type of patronymic was popular in Novgorod and Pskov at the time of their independence (1475 and 1510 respectively), especially, but by no means exclusively, in the higher strata of society." [9] The transcription system referred to in the source at footnote [4] as "International Phonetic" is more properly termed the ISO/R9 system. [10] Any modern transcription system will only allow you to render your name in modern Cyrillic; the transcription systems for rendering various medieval Russian scripts are typically quite complex. Several of the letters in the Cyrillic alphabet have changed such that there is no longer a one-to-one correspondence with the modern letters. If you'd like an idea of what your name looks like in Old Church Slavonic Cyrillic, we recommend this site: http://justin.zamora.com/slavonic/alphabet/transliteration.html Go to the "Untransliterator" and enter . The appropriate OCS characters should appear. You'll notice several letters that are no longer in the Cyrillic alphabet; if you'd like more information about the alphabet, please write again. You'll also note from this page that there is no distinction between upper and lower case letters; that distinction was not made until the sweeping reforms in written Russian implemented by Peter the Great in the early 18th century [1].