ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2967
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2967
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08 Feb 2005
From: Ursula Whitcher 


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether a name similar to <Graellyn Wolffe> would be
appropriate for a man living in Wales between 1000 and 1200 AD.

The Anglo-Normans (English descendants of the Norman French who came to
England with William the Conqueror) conquered Wales slowly over the
course of your period.  Since the name you've chosen is very similar to
an Anglo-Norman name, we've concentrated on names from that culture.

The closest name we could find to <Graellyn> is the Anglo-Norman
<Graelent>: we found various forms of this name in your period,
including <Graelan{dh}> in 1198, <Graelant> in 1224, <Greylond> between
1182 and 1272, and <Gralang> in 1206.  (Here {dh} represents the letter
edh, which looks like a backwards 6 with a bar through the ascender.)
We also found the form <Gralandus> in a document written in Latin from
1214, and the similar name <Graelencus> in the twelfth century in
another Latin document.  <Graelant> or <Graelent> is a fine choice for
your period. [1, 3]

We found <Robert Wulf> in 1166 and <John le Wolf> in 1279.  Both <Wulf>
and <le Wolf> were descriptive bynames which indicated that the bearer
was like a wolf. [2]

<Graelant Wulf>, <Graelent le Wolf>, or a similar combination is a fine
name for an Anglo-Norman in your period.

I hope this letter has been useful to you.  If any part of it is
unclear, or if you have other questions, please don't hesitate to write
to us again.  In particular, we'd be happy to provide you with an 
authentic pronunciation of <Graelant Wulf>.  Tangwystyl verch Morgant 
Glasvryn, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Kolozsvari Arpadne Julia, and 
Aryanhwy merch Catmael assisted in researching and writing this letter.

For the Academy,

Ursula Georges
8 February 2005

References:

[1]  P. H. Reaney & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995) s.nn.
<Grayland>, <Grayling>.

[2]  Reaney and Wilson s.n. Wolf.

[3] Nicolaa de Bracton, "A Statistical Survey of Given Names in Essex
Co., England, 1182-1272", Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings
1995 (SCA Inc.; WWW: privately published, 1997).
http://members.tripod.com/nicolaa5/articles/names.html