ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2837
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2837
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8 Sep 2004
From: Josh Mittleman 


Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You wanted to know if <Claire Albaret> is an appropriate name for
a French woman living in the 1400's.  

We apologize for the time it has taken to complete this letter.

While France today is a unified country with a common language, that
was not true in our period.  Pre-modern France was home to several
languages.  The most significant division was between the langue
d'oil, or French, spoken in the north, and the langue d'oc, also
called Occitan or Provencal, spoken in the south. These were different
languages, not just dialects of the same language, and names in them
were often quite different.

<Albaret> is a fine surname for your period.  It is an Occitan
surname, derived from an Occitan word that means "grove of white
poplars" [6, 7].  We do not have an example of it in your period, but
we have no doubt it was used: A modern surname derived from Occitan
was almost certainly in use in the 15th century; and there is no part
of this name that we would expect to have changed in the transition
from Occitan to modern French.

The Occitan equivalent of <Claire> is <Clara>.  It doesn't appear to
have been common in the south, but we have found a few examples, with
the place and date they were recorded:

  Clara (Dauphine/, 12th c) [5] 
  Clariella (Nice, 13th c) [4]
  Claria (Perigueux, mid 14th c) [2]
  Clareta (Toulouse, early 16th c) [3]

The slash represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter.

<Clareta> is a diminutive of <Clara>, and <Clariella> is similarly a
diminutive of <Claria>.  The existance of <Clareta> in the 16th
century suggests that the base name, <Clara>, would not be out of
place in your period.


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 Aryanhwy merch
Catmael, Talan Gwynek, Mari neyn Brian, and Maridonna Benvenuti.

For the Academy,

  Richenda du Jardin and Arval Benicoeur
  8 Sep 2004

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References

[1] Morlet, Marie-The/re\se. _E/tude d'Anthroponymie Picarde: Les noms
de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIc, XIV, XVc sie\cles_ (Le
Presses du Palais Royal: Paris), page 112.

[2] Friedemann, Sara L., "Feminine Names from Pe/rigueux, 1339-1340"
(WWW: Self-published, 2003).
http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/perigueux.html

[3] Talan Gwynek, "Late Period Feminine Names from the South of
France" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999). 
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/latefrenchfem/  

[4] Compan, Andre/, _E/tude d'Anthroponymie Provenc,ale: Les Noms de 
Personne dans le Comte/ de Nice aux XIIe, XIVe, et XVe Sie\cles_, thesis 
at the Universite/ de Paris IV, Dec. 1975 (Paris: Librarie Honore 
Champion, 1976), p.131.

[5] "Noms de Femmes Releve/s dans les Divers Cartulaires e/tudie/s" at
II:231 in Bourin, Monique, ed., _Genese medievale de l'anthroponymie
moderne_ (Tours : Universite/ de Tours, [1989]).

[6] Dauzat, Albert. _Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de Famille et
Pre/noms de France_ (Larousse: Paris), pg. 5, s.n. Albaret.

[7] Morlet, The/re\se.  _Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de
Famille_ (Perrin), page 31, s.n. Albar.