ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2804 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2804 ************************************ 3 Dec 2003 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if 'Eleanora of joy' is an appropriate name for the illegitimate daughter of a courtesan living in Venice in the 16th century. Here is the information we have found. was the name of a Sardinian giudicessa (female judge or magistrate) who died in 1404. [1] It does not appear to have been a very common name; we found the pet form in Florence in 1427 and one woman named in 1605. [2,3] We did not find any examples that clearly placed the name in Venice, though this could be a reflection of the depth of our sources. We were unable to find any evidence that is a medieval byname. Additionally, the only connection that we found between and illegitimacy appears to be modern. [4] In fact, we'd be surprised to find any surname that indicated illegitimacy; if a child was born out of wedlock, he'd still bear either his father's surname or, if his father was unknown, his mother's. [5] does appear to be a given name derived from the Italian 'joy; jewel'. In Sicily, it is found as a feminine name spelled a. 1298 and a. 1335 [6,7], and in Pisa in the 13th century is found as a masculine name. [8] We also found one example of used as a descriptive byname, in 1200 in Lucca. [7] If you are still interested in using some form of as your byname, we can offer two suggestions. The first is to use as a descriptive byname, e.g. . The second is to create a patronymic byname (a byname based on your father's name) from , e.g. 'Eleanora [daughter] of Gioia'. (We don't recommend that you use as a metronymic byname (one indicating your mother's name), because we have not found any evidence of matronymic bynames in Italy.) We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Adelaide de Beaumont, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 03Dec03 -- References: [1] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei nomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan, 1992). s.n. Eleonora [2] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/catasto/ [3] Elenco dei nati, registrati nella Comunita\ di Tigliole, dal 1582 al 1620. http://it.geocities.com/esseci3/N1582-620.htm [4] Fucilla, Joseph G., _Our Italian Surnames_ (Evanston, IL: Chandlers' Inc., 1949). p. 234 [5] Veronica Franco (1546-1591) was the daughter of a courtesan and did not have a byname indicating illegitimacy. [6] Caracausi, Girolamo, _Dizionario Onomastico della Sicilia_, (Palermo: 1994) vol. 1 s.n. Gioia [7] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei cognomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978). s.n. Gioia [8] Salvatori, Enrica, ed., "4300 Citizens of Pisa Swear to Maintain the Alliance with Siena, Pistoia and Poggibonsi" (WWW: Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University). http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/italia/pisani.html