ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2970 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2970 ************************************ 29 Dec 2004 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked for help creating names for you, your husband, and your daughter that would be appropriate for a family from Avignon but living in Tolouse in the 12th century. You said that your husband was interested in the name or , you were interested in the given name name like your modern name , and that if we couldn't find anything close you liked the names , , and . You also said that you'd like a byname meaning 'wife of Miquel' and that your daughter wanted to use the given name with a byname meaning 'daughter of Miquel'. Lastly, you asked if we could point you to a map of southern France that lists city names in Occitan rather than French. Here is the information we have found. In the 12th and 13th centuries, we find the Occitan masculine and . [1] Forms of were rare until after the 13th century, but is a fine choice for your husband's given name. [3] Medieval Occitan was an inflected language, i.e. nouns took different endings depending on the grammatical context in which they were used. The spelling is an example of the nominative case, used when the name is the subject of a sentence or in direct address: Michels swings a mighty sword. The final <-s> became <-t> or <-d> in the oblique case, used in all other grammatical contexts: Let Michelt lead us into battle. Give that large shield to Micheld. We have few sources for feminine Occitan names from the 12th century, and so we were unable to find very much information about the other names you asked about. The only name that we can confirm as being correct for the 12th century is , which we find in a record from 1125 that is probably from Languedoc. [2] While many Germanic names used the element <-linda> or <-linde>, we have found no evidence for as an independent name before the 19th century. [14,15,18] The closest we found are and (undated but from sometime around the 9th or possibly 10th centuries) and from Marseilles c. 1057. [2] is either a form of , which is a derivative of , or a misspelling of the name , where represents a c-cedilla. was the name of the wife of one , who lived in Mas-Saintes-Puelles around the middle of the 13th century. This is the only example of this rare name that we've found, and we are not sure if it is appropriate for the 12th century. [3] We did find both and in 1170, though we are not sure if these spellings have been modernized. [5] We also found one sometime between the 9th and 11th century, in Lyon. [13] We found forms of in the 13th and 14th centuries; the name is spelled , , and in Occitan. [3,4,8] We also found in a Latin document from Catalonia in 974. [7] While we cannot confirm that it was used in the 12th century, we would not be surprised if it was. One of the main characters in the chanson de geste 'Raoul de Cambrai' is named ; is a Latin form of this name. The chanson dates from the last quarter of the 12th century. [11,12] The name was common at the beginning of the 14th century, and given its Germanic roots we believe it's not implausible for your period as well. [3] In Occitan, the usual way of indicating that you were the daughter of a man named was by using as your byname. is a fine byname for your daughter. [6] We did not find any evidence for bynames in Provencal, and so we recommend that you do not use such a byname. We did find some 13th century examples of women using a feminine form of their husband's surname, e.g. wife of [6]; we are not sure if this is appropriate for the 12th century. Even if this practice was in place, we do not believe that a byname based on a location would have a different form when used by a woman. Either of your husband's bynames are fine, though is not grammatically correct. is both the early and modern Catalan spelling of , and we found a number of examples of this spelling in the 10th century. [9,10] The preposition does not elide before place names that do not begin with a vowel, so the proper byname based on this place is . We found the place name in Occitan literature of the thirteenth century as , , , and [16,17]. Here, the preposition would elide, e.g. . 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 Juliana de Luna, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 29 December 2004 -- References: [1] Ramons lo Montalbes, "French/Occitan Names From The XII And XIII Century" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ramon/occitan/ [2] 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), II:83a, I:162b [3] Brenon, Anne, _Le petit livre aventureux des pre/noms occitans au temps du Catharisme_ (Tolosa: Loubatie\res, 1992), s.nn. s.n. Alissendis, Laurenc,a, Lauressa, Mersendis, Michael [4] Cateline de la Mor, "Names from Fourteenth Century Foix" (SCA: Trimarian Known World Heraldic Symposium, AS XXIX; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/cateline/foix.html. [5] Bague/, Enric, _Noms Personals de l'Edat Mitjana_, Editorial Moll, Palma de Mallorca, 1975. p. 133 [6] Brenon, op. cit., pp.15-23 [7] Ordeig i Mata, Ramon, _Catalunya Carolingia: Volum IV: Els Comtats d'Osona i Manresa_, Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, 1999. p. 851 [8] Bague/, op. cit., 1975. p. 104 [9] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963). [10] Ordeig i Mata, op. cit., pp. 626, 651, 674 [11] Ailes, Marianne, review of Sinclair, Finn E., _Milk and Blood: Gender and Genealogy in the 'Chanson de geste'_ (Bern: Peter Lang, 2003), 292 pp., (WWW: Reading Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, 2004) http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/ln/Medieval/reviews/Sinclair_Chanson.htm [12] "Raoul de Cambrai" (WWW: Chanson de Geste.com, no date) http://www.chanson-de-geste.com/raoul_de_cambrai.htm [13] Morlet, op. cit., II:69a, s.n. Laurentia [14] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983). s.n. Linda [15] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.n. Linda [16] Flutre, Louis-Fernand, _Table des noms propres avec toutes leurs variantes, figurant dans les romans du Moyen Age e/crits en franc,ais ou en provenc,al et actuellement publie/s ou analyse/s_ (Poitiers: Centre d'e/tudes supe/rieures de civilisation me/die/vale, 1962). s.n. Avignon [17] Chambers, Frank M., _Proper Names in the Lyrics of the Troubadours_ (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971). s.n. Avinho. [18] Bahlow, Hans, _Unsere Vornamen im Wandel der Jahrhunderte_, Vol. 4 in the series _Grundriss der Genealogie_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn: C. A. Starke Verlag, 1965). s.n. Linda