ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2831 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2831 ************************************ 12 May 2004 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a Swedish man living in the 1630's. Here is the information we have found. is a fine name. It is a Swedish form of , and it was relatively common in the 16th century. [1] In the period 1638-1664, we find a number of people whose father's name was : [5] Anders Persson Ka"rna Bo"rje Persson Uggla Gio"sta Persson Krabbe Ha*kan Persson A*kerman Ingrid Persdotter Johan Persson Wulff In this list, the " represents an umlaut over the previous letter and the * represents a ring over the previous letter. In Sweden in the early 17th century patronymic bynames (i.e., bynames based on the name of the bearer's father) were by far the most common type, followed by locative bynames (referring to place of residence). A cursory examination of our best source, which unfortunately only goes to the early 16th century, turned up a few exceptions; almost all were occupational, but we did find 1511 'Birger Wolf', 1512 'Black Hakon', 1515 'big Hans', 1516 'Hans long', and a few other probable examples. We think it likely that similar nicknames were still in use in your period, though they were probably most common among those of relatively low social status. [8] On the other hand, when the Swedish nobility started adopting family names, they often based them on their heraldic arms. [6,7] It's not impossible that a family who bore arms with a hedgehog would adopt a name meaning 'hedgehog'. Swedish 'hedgehog' is an old word in the Scandinavian languages: It is found already in Old Norse (as , where the slash stands for an acute accent over the previous letter, and is o-ogonek, an with a reversed comma hanging from the lower edge) and in Old Swedish (as , among others). [2, 3] In the 16th and 17th centuries the word is found in a great variety of spellings, but spellings in which the first element is <(i)ig(h)el-> and the second is <-kott> or <-ka*tt> are found throughout the period and down to the present. [3] The parentheses in <(i)ig(h)el-> indicate that word is found both with and without the parenthesized letters. We think it likely that and were the most common variants of this type. Certainly both and are entirely compatible with 16th and 17th century spelling practices. We have not found an example of or its Old Swedish ancestor as a Swedish byname or surname, but there is support for the idea of such a byname: Old Swedish 'hedgehog' is found as a byname -- indeed, this short form is known only from a byname in Old Swedish -- and Old Norse 'hedgehog' (literally 'bristle-hedgehog') is found as a Norwegian byname in 1326. [3, 4] Based on the spellings cited above, we believe that is a fine spelling for your period, though is perhaps more likely. 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 Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Jillian Saint Andre. For the Academy, -Aryanwy verch Cadvael, 12May04 -- References: [1] --, _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 1- (Uppsala: 1967-. bd. 1, h. 3: isbn: 91-7192-123-8; bd. 1, h. 4: isbn: 91-7192-223-7; bd. 1, h. 5: isbn: 91-7402-044-7; bd. 2, h. 6: isbn: 91-7402-104-4; bd. 2, h. 7: isbn: 91-7402-136-2, h. 8: isbn: 91-7402-115-x; bd. 2, h. 9: isbn: 91-88096-00-9; bd. 2, h. 10: isbn: 91-88096-01-7; Bloms Boktryckeri AB: Lund 1983 bd. 2). s.nn. Benedikt, Erik, Folke, Gunar, Hakon This source has only been published through , so to find information on , we looked at patronymic bynames of common 16th century names. [2] De Vries, Jan, _Altnordisches Etymologisches Wo"rterbuch_, 2nd edn. (Boston: Brill, 2000). s.v. i/gull [3] Svenska Akademiens Ordbok s.v. igelkott http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/ [4] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21). s.n. bursti/gull [5] Craig, Peter Stebbins, "New Sweden Settlers, 1638-1664" (WWW: Genealogical Society of Finland) http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/3d41indexe.htm [6] Ho"gman, Hans, "Svenskt namnskick i ga*ngna tider" (WWW: Self- published, 2003) http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/namnskick_sv.htm [7] Oxenstierna, Christer, "Namnet Oxenstierna" (WWW: circa 1996) http://www.oxenstierna.org/imagedb/others/namnet_oxenstierna.pdf [8] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_ op cit., s.nn. Birger (col. 381), Hakon (col. 701), Hans (cols. 113, 114).