ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2858 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2858 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 19 May 2004 From: Femke de Roas Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked us if or would be an appropriate name for a woman living in early 16th century France, specifically Calais. We haven't found in use in our period, but we did find two related names, and , in 13th century Picardy [2]. [Ed. See the note at the bottom of this letter.] We also found the latinized form in 14th and 15th century Burgundy [3]. The diminutive suffix <-ete> was very common throughout northern France in this period, so we have no hesitation suggesting as a 13th-15th century French name. By the 15th century, the modern suffix <-ette> had certainly begun to replace the older <-ete> [4], so is a reasonable choice for the 15th century. It is probably equally good for the 16th century, though we don't have enough 16th century data to say for certain whether this family of given names remained in use. is a fine choice of surname. It derives from the many places in France with this name and is still common today [5]. One of these places, Saint Remy au Bois in the north of France, is recorded as in 1500, so your spelling is entirely appropriate [1]. In the early 16th century, however, we would not expect to see an additional descriptive byname 'of Provence' after the given name and surname. We do not see surnames at any time that refer to a compound placename, so we would not expect to see or used in this manner. According to our research is a fine name for a 16th century woman in northwestern France. 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, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek and Maridonna Benvenuti. For the Academy, Femke de Roas May 19, 2004 ______________________________________________________________________ REFERENCES [1] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972), III:168b. [2] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967), pp.22, 30. [3] Bourin, Monique and Pascal Chareille, eds., Gene\se Me/die/vale de l'Anthroponymie Moderne (Tours: Universite/ de Tours, 1992), t.II, pp.231-242. [4] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "French Names from Paris, 1423 & 1438" (WWW: privately published, 2002). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/paris1423.htm [5] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Saint. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addedum, Arval, 28 Feb 2005: Aryanhwy found 1508, in Archives nationales (France), Hommages rendus a\ la Chambre de France: Chambre des comptes de Paris, se/rie P, XIVe-XVIe sie\cles: inventaire analytique (Paris: Les Archives: Diffuse/e/ par la Documentation franc,aise, 1982-1985.), volume 2, entry 1164. This source modernizes the spellings of given names, but it's likely that the name in the actual source was .