ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3097 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3097 ************************************ 15 Aug 2005 From: Gunnvor Silfraharr Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us to evaluate as an English name ca. 1150-1250 for a man associated with the town currently called Tankersley, north of Sheffield, England. The town name in Yorkshire developed from Old English <{TH}ancredes leah> "{TH}ancred's wood or clearing", where <{TH}ancred> is a masculine name probably of Old English origin [1]. The {TH} represents the character "thorn", which resembles a lower-case p overlapping a lower-case b, so that they share a single loop. derives from the Anglo-Saxon name <{TH}anchere> and thus represents a personal name, not a placename; it is not the same name as <{TH}ancred>, which is the name found in the placename [2]. Early written forms of the town name include: Tancreslei 1086 [1] Tancresleia 1086 (Latinized form) [1] Thankerleia ca.1150 (Latinized form) [3] Tancresley 1185x1215 [1, 4] Tancredeslay 1194, 1196 [1] Tankersley from the 13th c. on [1] Tankerslay from the 13th c. on [1] In the English of your period, the byname could have been written or , although the latter uses a conservative spelling that is probably not appropriate much after 1200. The first of these was pronounced roughly \ohf TAHNG-kr@s-lay\; here \oh\ stands for the vowel of the word , \f\ is as in , not , and \@\ stands for the sound of in and . The spelling may represent the same pronunciation, if the spelling is historical rather than phonetic, or it may represent an older pronunciation something like \TAHNG-kr@-d@s-lay\. We also found the name in Yorkshire in 1204 [5], making it a good match for the locative name. Based on this evidence, a Latin form of , or an English form such as , is a fine name for an English man ca. 1150-1250. I 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 Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Mor inghean Chathail. For the Academy, Gunnvor Silfraharr 15 August 2005 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] _Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society_, Edited by Victor Watts, Edited in association with John Insley, Margaret Gelling (Cambridge University Press: January 2004). s.n. . [2] Searle, William George, _Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum_ (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1897). [3] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). s.n. . [4] The notation 1185x1215 indicates that the name occurred in one example between 1185 and 1215. [5] Reaney, P.H., & R.M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.n. .