ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3034 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3034 ************************************ 26 Apr 2005 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael (no address) Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a Welsh woman living in the late 16th century. Here is the information we have found. While we haven't found any form of in Wales before modern time, by the 16th century, most names used by English women were also used by Welsh women. We found the following English forms of during your period: [1,2] Magdalen 1604 Magdelne 1604 Maudlin 16th C, 1608 Mawdelyn 16th C We also found the following forms in Durham (the date is the date of earliest appearance, and the number is the number of times found): [3] Magdalen (4) 1597 Magdalene (3) 1591 Magdeline (3) 1562 Magdaline (2) 1598 Magdalena 1596 Magdalina 1611 Magdelem [sic] 1615 Magdelena 1611 Magdelina 1605 Maudland (6) 1541 Madglyne 1590 Madilon 1614 Madylyne 1559 Maudeland 1575 Maudelin 1606 Maudlen 1613 Maudlin 1571 These show quite a bit of range of variation in spelling. However, Durham is in the north of England, quite a distance away from Wales, so we're not sure whether they support the use of in Wales. (Note that we haven't actually found an example of the spelling either in Wales or England.) By your period, all of these names were pronounced roughly \MOHD-l@n\, where \oh\ is the sound of in and \@\ is the sound of in or . [4,8] The in some of the spellings was not pronounced. It was most likely included by learned scribes to make it more similar to the Latin form of the name, . is a fine choice for your father's name; we find it in both the early and late 16th century. [5,6] It was pronounced roughly \MAH-dohck\. The construction is one of the most common name patterns for Welsh women in the 16th century. [6] However, the same woman could easily have been identified as either or by different scribes. 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 name was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Juetta Copin, Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Barak Raz. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 26 April 2005 -- References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.n. Madeline [2] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/ [3] Juetta Copin, private research based on Durham and Northumberland genealogical records published by GENUKI. http://website.lineone.net/~pjoiner/genuki/DUR/ http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/NBL/ [4] This can be represented more precisely in Kirshenbaum ASCII IPA as ['mO:dl@n]. [7] [5] Talan Gwynek, "Late Sixteenth Century Welsh Names" (1994; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). [6] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Women's Names in the First Half of 16th Century Wales" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/welshWomen16/ [7] Blaheta, Don, "Representation of IPA with ASCII" (WWW: Blahedo.org) http://www.blahedo.org/ascii-ipa.html [8] In some dialects the pronounciation might have been closer to the pronunciation of the common word .