ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3096 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3096 ************************************ 08 Jan 2006 From: Ursula Whitcher Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether was an appropriate name for a German woman living between 1250 and 1500. You were interested in a form of the surname or a surname appropriate for a member of a metalworking family. You asked about arms using a unicorn or a pair of wings as charges, and using tinctures other than gules and or (red and gold). We'll discuss your given name and surname separately, and then offer suggestions for your arms. is a form of the name . We found the form six times in a collection of German names from Baden-Wuerttemberg in 1495. We did not find this particular form in other collections of fifteenth-century German names. Many documents from Germany in your period were written in Latin, so it's possible that women who were known as had their names recorded in the standard Latin form . However, is definitely rare in the data available to us; and were much more common diminutives. (We've used {sz} to represent the German letter ess-tzet.) [1] Since you wrote that you would like to use rather than another variant of , we looked for forms of the surname and designs for your arms which are also appropriate for southwestern Germany in the late fifteenth century. is the normalized Middle High German spelling of a name recorded as and in Bavaria in 1239. (Here the caret <^> represents a circumflex over the preceding letter. This symbol is an editorial addition; we wouldn't expect to see it in a thirteenth-century document.) [2] We found the related form as a modern surname. [3] To determine a fifteenth-century form of the name, we looked for fifteenth-century forms of other names whose modern forms begin with . We found , corresponding to modern , and , corresponding to modern and , in 1497 Nuernberg. [6] In the 1495 collection of names from Baden-Wuerttemberg, we found and , which correspond to the modern names and , respectively. [1] We believe that is a plausible form of for southwestern Germany in the late fifteenth century. [7] We found the following arms with unicorns or wings as charges in the Zurich roll, a roll of arms from about 1340: [4] Gules, a unicorn rampant argent. Gules, two unicorns' heads couped and addorsed argent. Or, two unicorn's heads couped addorsed azure. Argent, a unicorn's head couped gules armed vert. Sable, a unicorn's head couped argent. Argent, two wings inverted and addorsed sable. Or, two wings inverted and addorsed sable. Argent, three wings inverted azure. Gules, a wing argent. Gules, a pair of wings displayed argent. Azure, a wing inverted argent. Sable, three fusils conjoined in fess argent within a bordure or. Based on these examples, we can recommend the following arms: Sable, two unicorns' heads couped addorsed argent. Sable, a unicorn rampant ermine. Argent, three vols two and one vert. Argent, three wings two and one azure. We also found several devices in collections of medieval German arms which used the top half of a creature as a charge, including a demi-unicorn in 1557. Therefore, we believe that arms incorporating a demi-unicorn are also appropriate for your period: [4,5] Argent, a demi-unicorn rampant azure. Azure, a demi-unicorn argent. Per fess sable and argent, a demi-unicorn sable. I hope this letter has been useful to you. If any part of it is unclear, or if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to write to us again. Walraven van Nijmegen, Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Gunnvor Silfraharr, Sabine Berard, Mor inghean Chathail, and Talan Gwynek assisted in researching and writing this letter. For the Academy, Ursula Georges 8 January 2005 References: [1] Aryanhwy merch Catmael (Sara L. Friedemann), "German Names from 1495" (WWW: privately published, 2002-2005) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/german/german1495.html [2] Brian M. Scott, "Some Early Middle High German Bynames with Emphasis on Names from the Bavarian Dialect Area" (WWW: privately published, 2004) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/Early_German_Bynames.html [3] Josef Karlmann Brechenmacher, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960) s.n. . [4] Bigalski, Gerrit, ed., "The Zurich Roll of Arms" (WWW: C. Boselli, 1996). http://ladyivanor.knownworldweb.com/zroaen0.htm [5] "A Collection of Period German Heraldry (1400-1600) for SCA Heralds" (WWW: privately published). http://www.s-gabriel.org/docs/sturm.html [6] Aryanhwy merch Catmael (Sara L. Uckelman), "German Names from Nu"rnberg, 1497" (WWW: privately published, 2005) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/german/nurnberg1497.html [7] The usual l-diminutive in Swabian is <-le>. Priebsch, R., and W.E. Collinson, _The German Language_, 3rd edn (London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1948), p. 236.