ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3012 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3012 ************************************ 2 Mar 2005 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about the use of the name in our period. Here is what we have found. The most familiar example of the name is the character in Shakespeare's Hamlet. That play was first performed in 1600 and first published in 1603 [9, 10]. It is not clear where Shakespeare got the name: it is a matter of some debate among Shakespearean scholars. It might be a reference to Poland, since the Latin name of Poland is [1]. The name does not appear in the Gesta Danorum, which was probably Shakespeare's source for the basic story of the play: the character equivalent to Shakespeare's Polonius is unnamed [2]. We have not found an example of in our sources for Danish or English names. The only historical example we have found of as a given name is from Poland in 1321. It is a reduced form of the given name [3, 4]. A similar form, , occurs in Russia in 1220 [11]. derives from a fairly common Greek name [5], most notably the name of a philosopher of the 1st century BC and a mathematician of the 3rd century BC. A couple examples of the name appear in the biblical Books of Maccabees [6]. The feminine form was much more common than the masculine name; it was most significantly the name of a 3rd century martyr saint [7]. Masculine and feminine forms of the name were used in several medieval and renaissance cultures [8], but the only place we've found the exact form is the one example in 14th century Poland. If your friend would like to build a complete name appropriate for 14th century Poland, we'll be happy to help. 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, Kolozsvari Arpadne Julia, Eoin Caimbeul, Gunnvor Silfraharr, and Mari neyn Brian. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 23 Feb 2005 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Mark Alexander, "Polonius As Lord Burghley" (WWW: Shakespearean Authorship Sourcebook, 2003). http://www.sourcetext.com/sourcebook/essays/polonius/corambis.html [2] Saxo Grammaticus, "Amleth, Prince of Denmark", ed. D. L. Ashliman (WWW: privately published, 1997). http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/amleth.html [3] Taszycki, Witold (ed.), _S{l/}ownik Staropolskich Nazw Osobowych_ (Dictionary of Old Polish Personal Names), vols. I-VII (Wroc{l/}aw: Zak{l/}ad Narodowy Imienia Ossoli{n'}skich, Polska Akademia Nauk, 1965-1987), s.n. Polonius. The full citation is Latin: "Polonius son of Tylo resigned/surrendered {something}". is the genitive form of , which is a Latinization of the Polish name . The same book has a moderately long entry for , a Polish form of . [4] The example in Taszycki was used by the SCA College of Arms to justify the registration of the name on the Sept 2003 LoAR. The College misconstrued the example of as a byname meaning "Polish". The word has been used that way: The 19th century Polish poet Xavier Labensky wrote in French under the pen name , and he clearly intended to be a reference to his nationality [4a]. However, the normal medieval Latin adjective meaning "Polish" was [4b, 4c, 4d]. [4a] Xavier Labensky, dit Jean POLONIUS (1790-1855) http://poesie.webnet.fr/auteurs/polonius.html [4b] Latham, R.E., _Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources_ (London: British Academy, 1965). [4c] Taszycki s.n. Polak. [4d] Unbegaun, B. O., _Russian Surnames_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), p.330. [5] Fraser, P.M., and E. Matthews, "The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names" (WWW: Oxford University, 1998), http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/ It contains about 1500 examples of (where represents the letter omega) in Greece before the 8th century. [6] The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. (WWW: Columbia University Press, 200104. www.bartleby.com/65/ Specifically: Apollonius of Tyana http://www.bartleby.com/65/ap/ApolloniTy.html Apollonius of Perga http://www.bartleby.com/65/ap/ApollonP.html Apollonius Rhodius http://www.bartleby.com/65/ap/ApolloniR.html Apollonius http://www.bartleby.com/65/ap/ApollonBib.html [7] St. Apollonia, The Catholic Encyclopedia (WWW: New Advent, 2003). http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01617c.htm [8] The closest thing we found to another example of is the late 15th century Dutch name , a pet form of [8a]. Another example spelled may represent the same name [8b]. Other Dutch pet forms of include 15th century [8a], 13th century [8c], and perhaps and [8i, 8j]. We also found masculine names derived from in 13th-16th century Russia [11], 15th century Sweden, 9th-11th century France [8d, 8e]. Feminine names from appear in 16th century Russia [11], 16th century Slovenia, 15th century Finland, 16th century England, and 15th century Denmark [8f, 8g, 8h, 8k]. There are probably examples in other cultures; we didn't search exhaustively. [8a] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "15th Century Dutch Names" (WWW: privately published, 2000). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/dutch/dutch15.htm [8b] Beele, Wilfried, _Studie van de Ieperse Persoonsnamen uit de Stads- en Baljuwsrekeningen 1250-1400_ (Handzame, 1975). [8c] Debrabandere, F., _Kortrijkse Naamkunde 1200-1300, met een kumulatief familienamenregister_, Anthrophonymica XXII (Leuven : Instituut voor Naamkunde : Peeters, 1980). [8d] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_ (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1967-), vol. 1, h.1, s.n. Apollonius. [8e] 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:20a. [8f] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Appoline. [8g] Kerttu Katariinantyta"r Roisko, "Vanhat nimityyppimme (Finnish Names)" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 2001). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/FinnishNamesArticle.htm [8h] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48), s.n. Apollonia. [8i] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "Dutch Names 1358-1361" (WWW: privately published, 2000). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/dutch/earlydutch14.html [8j] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "Dutch Names 1393-1396" (WWW: privately published, 2000). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/dutch/dutch14.html [8k] Keber, Janez. _Leksikon Imen: Izvor imen na Slovenskem_ (Celje: Mohorjeva Dru{zv}ba, 1988), s.n. Apolonija. [9] The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition (WWW: bartelby.com, 2004) http://www.bartleby.com/65/sh/Shakespe.html [10] Alchin, L.K. "Hamlet: The Play by Shakespeare" in William Shakespeare info: the Complete Works online (WWW: William Shakespeare info, 2005). http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-hamlet.htm [11] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names", 3rd edition (Normal, Illinois: SCA, Free Trumpet Press West, 2000), s.nn. Apollonii, Polon, Poloneia, Poloshian, Polous, Polouskha.