ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2918 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2918 ************************************ 27 Sep 2004 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked if we could research forms of the Dutch man's name that were used in English between 1400 and 1600. Here is the information we have found. The Dutch name has cognates -- names descended from a common ancestor -- in several of the Germanic languages. These include Old High German , Old Saxon , Old Norse , and Old English . (These are standardized forms, slightly simplified from those commonly used by scholars; in reality these names were all spelled in a variety of ways, partly because spelling was not fully standardized, and partly owing to dialect variation. The symbol {dh} represents the letter edh, written like a backward '6' with a crossbar on the upper limb.) Two of these cognates left significant traces on English naming. The Old English name developed into the Middle English . This name was used until c. 1300, and then fell out of use until the 18th century. [4] We therefore can't recommend this as the best of choices for your period. The Continental Germanic cognate also found its way to England. It was first adopted into Old French, where it developed into and , among other forms. [7] At or soon after the Conquest the Normans took it to England, where it seems mostly to have taken the Old French form . In the 11th to 14th centuries, we find the following forms: [1-6] Ogerus 1086, 1196, 1238 Odgarus 1214 Oger 1270 Odger 1290 The name also appears in patronymic bynames from this period (a patronymic byname is one which indicates the bearer's father's name): [1-6] Odgaressune 1148 [10] filius Oger 1189x1199 (this notation means that the document was written sometime in the period between 1189 and 1199). filius Ogeri 1196 filius Oggery 1216x1307 Oger 1296 Ogger 1306 Like most documents of this period, the ones from which these citations are taken are written in Latin, and the forms , , , and have been artificially Latinized by the scribe. The remaining forms, however, do not appear to have undergone any Latinization, and is exactly how one would expect 'Odgar's son' to be written in late Old English or Early Middle English. [10] would have been pronounced something like (\oh-DJAYR\) in early Old French; in Middle English, both and were more like \OH-djehr\. [8] However, the latest example of these forms that we have is from over a hundred years before the earliest part of your desired time period. Without evidence that this import remained in use in England, we cannot recommend it as the best re-creation either. So far as we can tell, a man named or in your period would have been quite surprising. We cannot rule it out completely, but we do not recommend it. 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 Maridonna Benvenuti, Mari neyn Brian, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Juliana de Luna, and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 27 September 2004 -- References: [1] Summerson, Henry, ed., _Crown pleas of the Devon Eyre of 1238_ (Torquay, England: printed for the Society by The Devonshire Press, 1985), pp. 5, 259. [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.n. Odgear [3] Forssner, Thorvald, _Continental-Germanic Personal Names in England in Old and Middle English Times_ (Uppsala: K.W. Appelbergs Boktryckeri, 1916). s.n. Odger [4] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.nn. Edgar, Ogier [5] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980). s.n. Odger [6] Von Feilitzen, Olof. 'The Personal Names and Bynames of the Winton Domesday', in Martin Biddle, ed., _Winchester in the Early Middle Ages_, Winchester Studies 1 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1976). [7] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987). s.n. Oger [8] In Kirshenbaum ASCII IPA, these can be represented as [O'dZer] and ['OdZEr], respectively. [9] [9] Blaheta, Don, "Representation of IPA with ASCII" (WWW: Blahedo.org) http://www.blahedo.org/ascii-ipa.html [10] This may be an error for .