ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2960 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2960 ************************************ 23 Nov 2004 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether <Hamund Gladwin> is an appropriate name for an Englishman between 1200 and 1350. Here is what we have found. You've chosen a fine name for at least the first century of your period, though we will suggest a slightly different spelling. <Hamund> and its variants are usually Middle English forms of two similar but distinct names which eventually were confused. In some cases it derives from Old Norse <Ha/mundr> (where the slash represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter). In others, it is a variant of the French <Hamon> (which is itself a grammatical variant of <Hamo>) [2]. The name appears in a variety of spellings, listed below [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The forms ending in <-us> are Latinized. The examples whose dates are marked with an asterisk (*) were recorded as patronymic bynames (surnames which identified a man as his father's son by using the father's given name); these are often a better guide to the vernacular form of the name than given names, since given names were more often written by scribes in standard or Latin forms. Hamandus c.1140 (a Latin form, implying English <Hamand>) Hamundus c.1195x1205 [6], c.1210 Amund' c.1215 (the apostrophe may indicate a missing letter) Hamund 1203, 1242*, 1273, 1273*, 1280* Hammond 1200, 1210, 1319 Haumund c.1215x1220, 1235 Hammund 1273, 1273* Hamond 1273, 1306 The name seems to have dropped out of use in the early 14th century. The surname <Gladwin> derives from an Old English given name recorded as <Gladuin> or <Gladuine> in 1066, <Gladwine> or <Gladewine> around 1113 [7]. When used as a surname in your period, it was intended to mean "Gladewine's son". We have several examples of the surname [7, 8, 9, 10, 11]: Gladewine 1148*, 1210*, 1273*, 1327, 1341 Gladewyne 1273*, 1279x1290*, 1327* Gledewyne 1317* Gladwyne 1327* Gladewyn' 1332* (the apostrophe probably indicates a missing 'e') We can't recommend the particular spelling <Gladwin> for your period; the closest spelling we've found is <Gladwyne>, and it seems to have been very unusual to omit the middle <-e-> before the 15th century. Based on this evidence, we can recommend <Hamund Gladewine> and <Hamund Gladewyne> as fine choices for the first century of your period. The given name isn't a good choice much after 1300. The written language of your period was Latin; in a Latin document, your name might have been written <Hamundus filius Gladewini>, <Hamundus Gladewine>, or <Hamundus Gladewyne>. The first of these forms is the likeliest in the early 13th century. Your name was pronounced \HAH-m@nd GLAH-d@-win-@\, where \@\ represents the sound of the <a> in <about> or <soda>. Toward the end of your period, the surname might have reduced to \GLAHD-win-@\, \GLAH-d@-win\, or even to \GLAHD-win\. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Gunnvor Silfraharr. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 23 Nov 2004 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Hamo(n). <Hamund> derives from the objective case form <Hamon> of the Old French name <Hamo>. The name is occasionally found in early post-Conquest England as <Hamo>. [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Hammond. <Haimund'> and similar examples probably derive from a third source, Old French <Haimon>, which is either an oblique case or a diminutive of <Haimo>. [3] Fellows Jensen, Gillian, _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968), p.131f s.n. Ha/mundr. [4] Insley, John, _Scandinavian personal names in Norfolk : a survey based on medieval records and place-names_ (Uppsala: Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy; Stockholm : Distributor, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1994), s.n. Ha/mundr. [5] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.nn. Strange, Hammon. [6] The notation 1121x1148 means sometime between 1121 and 1148. [7] Reaney & Wilson s.n. Gladwin. [8] Bardsley s.n. Gladwin. [9] Selte/n, Bo, _The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names_, Volumes 1 & 2. (Lund, Sweden: Royal Society of Letters at Lund, 1979), II:84. [10] John, Trevor, ed., _The Warwickshire Hundred Rolls of 1279-80: Stoneleigh and Kineton Hundreds_, Records of Social and Economic History New Series XIX for The British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1992). [11] Franklin, Peter, _The Taxpayers of Medieval Gloucestershire: An Analysis of the 1327 Lay Subsidy Roll with a New Edition of its Text_ (Dover, NH: Alan Sutton Publishing Inc, 1993).