Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 304

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 304

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/304

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on your name, "Karen Larsdatter."

You don't even need the "mundane name loophole" to pass "Karen." Our Swedish members found several forms of "Karen" in period Denmark:

They also found "Lars" in 1448 in the same source (1)

As for your main question, the "datter" vs. "dottir," in period these weren't specifically Danish or Swedish forms. Medieval spelling was phonetic, and people in Denmark and Sweden probably used both spellings. Unfortunately our best source abbreviates all datter/ dottir/dotter/etc. as "d," so we don't have a specific spelling of "datter." There's a huge number of Swedish and Norwegian spelling variants for this, and there are undoubtedly an equally huge number of Danish variants. If you make it clear that you don't want to change the spelling of your name (most kingdoms have a box you can check to indicate this), you shouldn't have a problem.

We want to make sure you know that you're not obliged to register your name. The College offers this service as a means to help Societyfolk to verify that their names are reasonably authentic and reasonably unique, but it does not compel you to register a name. If you want to register, you may; but if you prefer not to do so, you can simply pick an authentic name (which you have already done) and use it.

Hartmann Rogge, Evan da Collaureo, Lindorm Eriksson, Arval D'Espas Nord, Pedro de Alcazar, Angus Scrymgeour, and Zenobia Naphtali contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful; if we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Knudsen, Kristiansen & Hornby. "Danmarks Gamle Personnavne."