ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3087 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3087 ************************************ 30 Mar 2006 From: Ursula Whitcher Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for an English or French man living sometime in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. We'll start by talking about the given name, and then discuss possible forms of the byname. Before we begin, we'd like to apologize for the amount of time this letter has taken. We hope this information is still useful to you. The English name was formed from the Latinized name during the fifteenth century. [1] In France, Latin corresponded to names derived from Scandinavian or the Latin word 'black'. [4] In England, was used for names derived directly from or the Gaelic name , as well as for names borrowed from French. [1] We'll discuss evidence for written and possible spoken versions of the name in both France and England in your period. We found the Latinized names and used in France in the eleventh century. [4] We found the name in a twelfth-century French document, describing an eleventh-century viscount. [5] We believe that represents the spoken French form of the Latinized and ; this name would have been pronounced \nay-ELL\. In England, we found several people identified as in the 1086 Domesday Book, written in Latin. [2, 6, 7] In later Latin documents, we found a in 1189 and an Englishman recorded as in the early 13th century. [3, 6] We found the following vernacular (spoken) forms of the name: [1,2,3] Nel 1273 Nell 1273 Neel 1303, 1346 Nele 1379 We found several forms of your byname in documents from England written in Latin: and in 1086, in 1187, in 1219, in 1273 and 1292, 1292, and 1292. [2, 8] (The apostrophe in probably indicates that the final of the name has been dropped.) The form is Latinized; we believe that the other forms are identical to their Anglo-French counterparts. At the beginning of your period, the name probably retained the Old French pronunciation, \d@ mor-TEN~-@\; by the late 13th century, it was probably pronounced \d@ mor-tayn\ or \d@ MOR-tayn\. Here \@\ represents the sound of in and . (This sound is called schwa.) The \N~\ is the sound of n-tilde in Spanish 'mister' and in French 'mountain' and Italian . A name like or is an excellent name for an English man from your time period. In Latin records, this name might have been recorded as . We do not know how your byname might have appeared in French documents, though we believe that is appropriate for a Latin document written in France, at least at the beginning of your period. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Gunnvor Silfraharr, Adelaide de Beaumont, Ari A/nson, and Juliana de Luna. (The slash after the 'A' in Ari's name represents an acute accent over that letter.) For the Academy, Aryanhwy merch Catmael and Ursula Georges 30 March 2006 -- References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.n. Nigel [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.nn. Neal, Morten [3] Talan Gwynek, "Given Names from Early 13th Century England" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/eng13/ [4] 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:83b [5] J.R. Planche/, Somerset Herald, _The Conqueror and His Companions_, London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874; WWW: privately published. http://genealogy.patp.us/conq/ssauveur.shtml [6] Stacy, N.E., ed., _Surveys of the Estates of Glastonbury Abbey, c. 1135-1201_, The British Academy: Records of Social and Economic History, New Series 33 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 207, 243. [7] William Blyth, _Historical Notices & Records of the Village & Parish of Fincham in the County of Norfolk_, Kings Lynn: Thew and Son, 1873, ch. 14; WWW: Fincham and the Finchams. http://www.finchams.org/bbchaps/chapter_XIV.pdf [8] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.n. .