ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2826 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2826 ************************************ From: "C. L. Ward" 12 Jun 2004 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is appropriate as a Danish masculine name from the period 950-1050 A.D. Here is what we found. Throughout this letter, we'll use some special notation for letters that we can't easily include here. The slash following a vowel represents an acute accent mark on the preceding vowel. The {TH} represents the letter 'thorn', which resembles a lower-case p overlapping a lower-case b, so that they share a single loop. The notation {dh} represents the letter 'edh', which looks like a backward 6 with a crossbar on the riser, while {o,} represents the Icelandic o-ogonek, an 'o' with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from the bottom. The character {o"} represents an o-umlaut (an 'o' with two dots over it), while {a"} is an a-umlaut (an 'a' with two dots over it). We found no evidence of as a Danish name. The that you originally found was probably a modern variant of the Old Norse name . This name is mentioned in an early Icelandic document as the name of the father of one of the Icelandic settlers and the name of the son of another. Another source mentions a 10th c. [1]. The name appears to be exclusively West Scandinavian, i.e., Icelandic and Norwegian. In East Scandinavian, comprising approximately Swedish and Danish, we have one Swedish example, a patronymic from 1399, but it occurs in a part of southwestern Sweden immediately adjacent to Norway and is thought to be a borrowing of the Norwegian name; no Danish examples are known [2]. We did find a couple of 14th century Swedish examples of the similar name , but this appears to be a borrowing of a northern German name related to Old High German and not a native Swedish name [3]. In any case, we have found no examples of it in or near your period. Based on this evidence, a masculine personal name of would be a fine name for an Icelander or Norwegian in your period, but we can't recommend it as good historical re-creation for a Dane. The name would also be fine for a Norwegian man living in Denmark. is extremely unlikely as a Scandinavian patronymic, but there is a closely related name that is entirely possible. The French surname that you found is from an old Germanic given name , which was borrowed into Old French as and [4, 5]. This is descended from an even older Germanic name that in Scandinavia developed into Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian <{TH}jo/{dh}geirr>, Old Danish , and Old Swedish ; of these it is <{TH}jo/{dh}geirr> that goes with [6]. We have no Norwegian instances of the name <{TH}jo/{dh}geirr> until the 14th century, but there is an Icelandic example from about the year 1000 [7]. An Icelander named would not be at all out of place in your period, and it's likely that the name would also be suitable for a Norwegian. would be pronounced approximately as \BAH-rek(r) THYOADH-gayrs sohn\. The first \r\ in \BAH-rek(r)\ is trilled (sometimes called 'rolled') as in Italian or Spanish, while the final \r\ is a very short American \r\ sound. The patronymic name uses consonantal \Y\ (as in the English word "yes"). If you wish to investigate names more appropriate for eastern Scandinavia, including Denmark and Sweden, you might wish to consult "Nordiskt runnamnslexikon" (The Dictionary of Norse Runic Names), by Lena Peterson [8]. This is a database of names found in Norse runic inscriptions, published by a highly respected academic group. The dictionaries of given names and place names (PDF files) are usable even if you don't read Swedish. The inscriptions for each name are given with a code used by scholars to identify the source, for example "DR143B". The letters at the front indicate the location in which the inscription occurred, and Danish inscriptions will start with "DR". In the tenth century, Danish names would have been written in runes. If you'd like more information on how to write them authentically, once you have selected a name, we'll be happy work out suitable runic spellings. I 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 Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Arval Benicoeur, Barak Raz, Juliana de Luna, Mari neyn Brian, Lanen de Wylde, and Juetta Copin. For the Academy, Gunnvor silfraharr 12 June 2004 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). S.n. . In , the byname is a compound of a place-name 'Brenn Islands' and 'maned one', the latter because he had a great mane of black hair. The notation {a*} represents an a-ring, the letter a with a small circle at the top. [2] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 1 (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell Informationsindustri AB. bd. 1, h. 2). S.n. . [3] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, S.n. . [4] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de Famille_ (Librairie Acade/mique Perrin, 1997). S.n. [5] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). S.n. [6] Peterson, Lena, "Nordiskt runnamnslexikon" (WWW: Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research, 2001) http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/runlex/. [7] Lind, op. cit., s.n. <{TH}io/{dh}geirr>. [8] In addition to the URL for "Nordiskt runnamnslexikon" given in note [6], the notes on using this document provided at http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/nrl.shtml may be useful, and there is also a rough English translation available as a zipped PDF file at http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/FTP_Files/NordisktRunnamnslexicon.zip.