ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2854
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2854
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21 Sep 2004
From: Kolosvari Arpadne Julia
Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel!
You asked us about a feminine name appropriate for either
Poland or Hungary in the tenth or eleventh centuries. You were
specifically interested in the name <Katarzyna> and its pet
form <Kasia>.
Please accept our apologies for the length of time it has taken
us to write this letter. We hope this information is still
useful to you.
By the 14th century, forms of <Katherine> were very popular in
both Poland and Hungary [1, 2]. However, the earliest evidence
we have found for any form of this name in northern or eastern
Europe dates from circa 1265 [1]. Therefore, we cannot
recommend this name for your period. If you prefer to change
your period in order to use this name, then you can find more
information about Polish forms of <Katherine> at:
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2633
Names from the tenth and eleventh centuries are poorly
documented in both Poland and Hungary, and feminine names are
particularly difficult to find. Neither language was written
in your period: the earliest surviving connected text written
in Hungarian dates from c. 1190, and the earliest extant
complete sentence in Polish dates from c. 1270. Records of
names exist from earlier, but these are all encountered in a
foreign-language (usually Latin) context.
In Hungary, name scholars generally group medieval names into
two broad categories: "old" and "Christian" [3]. The use of
names from the two categories overlaps in the period between
the adoption of Christianity (1000) and the Synod of Buda
(1279), which decreed among other things that only the priest
could name a child at baptism [4]. This law accelerated the
general trend toward the use of saints' names that began among
the nobility in the 11th century and spread to commoners by the
1200s [5].
We haven't found any specific evidence about feminine names in
use in Hungary before the 12th century. However, based on
masculine name evidence [6] and the prevailing sentiment in
Hungarian onomastic literature [7], we believe that an "old"
name in use in the 12th or early 13th centuries is likely to
have considerably older roots, and hence should be a reasonable
choice for your period.
In 12th and 13th century documents from Hungary, we found
several dozen names which we can identify as feminine based on
context [8, 9]. Names marked with an asterisk (*) also occur
as masculine names, or in a context where the gender is not
clear. Names marked with a C are Christian or Latin names,
which were probably rarer in the 11th century, especially among
the lower classes [5]. Names marked with an S are of Slavic
origin, or are based on words borrowed from Slavic languages
[10]. All of the names are from documents written in Latin,
and we don't know how closely the written forms correspond to
the spoken names [11].
C Agnna 1235 servant
C Ancilla 1235 servant
C Anna 1229 sister
C Benedicta 1213, 1234-5 2 wives, 1 daughter
Bibura 1181 weaver
C Boncia, Bontia 1216 sister
S Bud* 1229 wife of servant
Bybur 1264
Caroldu c. 1200 (Turkic origin) [12]
C Cecilia 1235 servant
Cheperka 1228 mother of Giluad
Choucad 1215 wife of servant
Chynchola 1235 servant
Cincea 1220 wife
Cuce 1181 weaver
S Cusid* 1216 wife of porter
S Daraga, Derega 1208, 1213 2 servants
S Deduha 1215 villager
S Draga 1228
Edlelmes 1177
C Elena 1138 queen
Emelev 1198
Emse 1211
C Eufemia 1214, 1217 lady (twice)
C Foelicitas 1213, 1229 wife (twice)
Genuruch 1213 lady
Giluad 1228 daughter of Cheperka
Gyung 1276
Houodi 1152
Huga 1229 daughter of servant
Hugdi 1152
Hugus 1171
Huldhol 1213 servant
Ilega, Ilegu 1213, 1229 daughter (twice)
C Iustina 1229 lady
Jolyan 1282
Kesa* 1213 woman
Leanch 1273 widow
Lence 1181 weaver
C Macya* 1219 lady
C Magdalena 1211, 1229 1 lady, 1 servant
Magnet, Maged 1213, 1229 daughter (twice)
Manga (Mauga) 1211 servant
C Margueta 1213 servant
C Maria 1208, 1229 2 servants
C Martina 1220 sister of villagers
S Mizla 1235 woman
Moglou* 1211
Moxa 1234 wife of serf
Nesta 1212
C Paulia 1213 lady
Pena 1215 daughter of villager
C Rosa 1234, 1235 1 daughter, 1 lady
C Rusa 1255
Saroltu c. 1200 (Turkic origin) [12]
Scegenye 1282
S Scenca* 1214 servant
Scepa 1217, 1229 laundress, servant
Scereteu 1234 servant
Sebe* 1217 sister
C Susanna 1211 servant
Tykur 1291
S Vederey* 1217 laundress
Vnee 1293
Vrumes 1171
Vtalou 1235 woman
Vtuend 1199 servant
Vyragus 1237
In your period, almost everyone in Hungary used only one name.
In the 13th century legal record that is our source for many of
the names above, however, this single name is sometimes amended
with a Latin phrase describing a relationship, occupation, or
location, like <Iacob de villa Giontoy, filius Forcos> 1220
("Jacob of village Giontoy, son of Forcos"), <pristaldo Pentek
de villa Ratolt> 1219 ("bailiff Pentek of village Ratolt"), or
<Domina Paulia uxor Perrus> 1213 ("Lady Paulia wife of Perrus")
[13]. If you are interested in finding an appropriate
descriptive phrase to use as a byname, please write to us again
and we'll be happy to list some suggestions.
A Polish-Hungarian combination (someone from Poland living in
Hungary, or vice versa) is actually not unlikely in your
period. One of the sisters of St. Stephen of Hungary (reigned
1000-1038) was for a time the wife of the Polish king Boleslaus
the Brave (reigned 992-1025), and Bela I of Hungary (c. 1015-
1063) married a daughter of Mieszko II of Poland (990-1034)
while he was in exile in the Polish court [14, 15]. (The fact
that the name of neither princess was recorded is typical of
this period, and illustrates the difficulty of finding feminine
names appropriate to the turn of the first millennium.) The
"traffic" of younger royal brothers escaping dynastic struggles
was mutual: the Hungarian court sheltered several Piast
princes. The entourage of such a prince would have included
attendants of various social positions. We believe that a name
marked C from the list above could be appropriate for such an
attendant from a higher social class in either Poland or
Hungary.
Poland adopted Christianity about a generation earlier than
Hungary, in 966 [16], but older Slavic names remained in use
alongside newer Christian names throughout the Middle Ages
[17]. We have not found any specific information about which
names in either category (Slavic or Christian) were in use in
your period in Poland. A dictionary of modern Polish names
offers the following feminine names as descendants of old
Slavic two-part names: <Bogdana>, <Bogna>, <Bogumil/a>,
<Bolesl/awa>, <Bronisl/awa>, <Czesl/awa>, <Dobrosl/awa>,
<Godzisl/awa>, <Gos/cisl/awa>, <Grodzisl/awa>, <Jaromira>,
<Jarosl/awa>, <Lubomil/a>, <Lubomira>, <Lubosl/awa>,
<Mieczysl/awa>, <Mirosl/awa>, <Przemysl/awa>, <Radosl/awa>,
<Sl/awomira>, <Stanisl/awa>, <S/wie,tosl/awa>, <Tomisl/awa>,
<Wacl/awa>, <Wiesl/awa>, <Wl/adysl/awa>, <Wl/odzimiera>,
<Wojciecha>, and <Zdzisl/awa> [18]. (In this list, <s/>
indicates an s with an acute accent, and <l/> indicates Polish
slashed-L.) If one of these names interests you, please write
to us again, and we'd be happy to research when and in what
form the name was used in Poland.
We hope this letter answered your question. Please feel free
to write to us again if anything is unclear or if you have
further questions. I was assisted in researching and writing
this letter by Walraven van Nijmegen, Talan Gwynek, Arval
Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Ursula Georges, Gunnvor
Silfraharr, and Juliana de Luna.
For the Academy,
Kolosvari Arpadne Julia
21 September 2004
-------------------------
Throughout the following, the slash (/) indicates either an
acute accent mark on the preceding letter, or a slash through
the preceding letter <l>; the colon (:) indicates an umlaut
(two dots) over the preceding vowel, and the double quote mark
(") indicates Hungarian long-umlaut (two lines) over the
preceding vowel.
[1] Taszycki, Witold (ed.), _Sl/ownik Staropolskich Nazw
Osobowych_, vols. I-VII (Wrocl/aw: Zakl/ad Narodowy Imienia
Ossolin'skich, Polska Akademia Nauk, 1965-1987). s.n.
Katarzyna: <Katerina et Iudith, sorores (de Domo Dei)> c. 1265,
and s.n. Kasza: <Kazcha> c. 1265.
[2] Hajdu/ Miha/ly: _A/ltala/nos e/s magyar ne/vtan_ (Budapest:
2003) p. 361; in a frequency table covering all feminine name
occurences up to 1400, <Katalin> is number 3 (11.3%).
[3] Terminology varies; Ka/zme/r [i] uses <vila/gi> (secular)
and <egyha/zi> (ecclesiastic), while Ka/lma/n [ii] uses
<eredeti nevek> (original names) and <jo:veve/nynevek> (loan-
names) to indicate roughly the same groupings. Hajdu/ uses
smaller categories, but his analysis can be divided into pre-
and post-Christianity names.
[i] Ka/zme/r Miklo/s: _Re/gi magyar csala/dnevek szo/ta/ra_
(Budapest, 1993).
[ii] Ka/lma/n Be/la: _A nevek vila/ga_ (Budapest, no date;
after 1988). This is a Hungarian-language version of [5].
[4] Hajdu/ p. 359.
[5] Ka/lma/n, Be/la: _The World of Names, a Study in Hungarian
Onomatology_ (Budapest: 1978) pp. 41-42.
[6] Compare <Lebedias> 952 (in Greek) to <Lewedi> 1138/1329 [A]
or contrast <Guden> 1080 [B] with <Guden> 1138/1329 and
<Geuden> 1237-40 [C].
[A] Hajdu/ p. 349. (Also Fehe/rto/i s.n. Lewedi.)
[B] Berte/nyi Iva/n, szerk. (ed.): _Magyar To:rte/neti
szo:veggyu"jteme/ny 1000-1526_ (Budapest: 2000), p. 380.
[C] Fehe/rto/i Katalin: _A/rpa/d-kori kis szeme/lyne/vta/r_
(Budapest: 1983), s.nn. Guden, Geuden.
[7] Hajdu/ p. 347: "It is not worth speaking separately of the
few earlier names available to us (Leve/d, Elo"d, A/lmos),
since they fit into the Conquest-era name pool [...]" (my
translation). Also p. 324, he divides Hungarian onomastic
history into ten periods; the first of these is "the period
before the appearance of family names, from the Conquest to the
end of the A/rpa/d dynasty", which is to say 896-1301.
[8] Fehe/rto/i, s.nn. Agnna, Ancilla, Anna, Benedicta, Boncia,
Bud, Cecilia, Choucad, Chynchola, Cincea, Kusdi, Daraga,
Deduha, Elena, Eufemia, Foelicitas, Genuruch, Huga, Huldhol,
Ilega, Iustina, Kesa, Macya, Magdalena, Magnet, Manga,
Margueta, Maria, Martina, Mizla, Moxa, Paulia, Pena, Rosa,
Scenca, Scepa, Scereteu, Sebe, Susanna, Vederey, Vtalou.
[9] Hajdu/ pp. 348-352.
[10] Bosanac, Milan, _Prosvjetin Imenoslov_ (Zagreb: Prosvjeta,
1984).
[11] The difference between written and spoken forms is likely
to be greater for Christian names, which generally had a
standard Latin spelling; this written form may or may not have
matched the spoken name. Non-Christian names were probably
recorded more-or-less phonetically, within the limits of the
Latin alphabet.
[12] Hajdu/ p. 357. <Saroltu> is (traditionally) the name of
St. Stephen's mother; it appears as <Sarolth> in a 14th century
chronicle: Dercse/nyi, Dezso", ed.: _The Hungarian Illuminated
Chronicle_ (Budapest: 1969), p. 38 of the facsimile.
[13] Fehertoi s.nn. Farkas, Pentek, Paulia.
[14] Csorba Csaba: _A/rpa/d o:ro:ke/ben_ (Budapest: 1996), pp.
23, 40.
[15] "Mieszko II", The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
(WWW: Columbia University Press, 2003).
http://www.bartleby.com/65/mi/Mieszko2.html
[16] Hajdu/ p. 297.
[17] Hajdu/ p. 297: "The Christian religion accepted the use of
ancient Slavic-origin names over a long period of time" (my
translation).
[18] Knab, Sophie Hodorowicz: _Polish First Names_ (New York:
2000).