ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3121 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3121 ************************************ 4 Aug 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a 16th-century Russian orphan who was raised in the Archangel Michael Monastery in Arkhangel'sk. You also asked if armory would be appropriate for a man living in this period. Here is the information we have found. Your choice of given name is fine, though not necessarily this spelling. We haven't found any examples of in ordinary use, as a person's given name. This spelling is the church form of the name, used in calendars of saints and the like, whereas the colloquial form of the name is or . We found examples of various patronymic bynames (a patronymic byname is one which indicates the bearer's father's given name) based on or , including in 1526-7 and 1550. [1,7] It's certainly possible that was used, but on the whole we recommend either or for your given name. was pronounced roughly \gah-VREEL\, and roughly \gah-VREE-loh\. means 'son of Mikhail'. A patronymic byname like this is a fine choice for an orphan, assuming that his father's name was known, but we cannot recommend this particular construction. By the 16th and 17th centuries, Moscow had restricted the use of the <-ovich> suffix to only the highest dignitaries (i.e., boiars and high court officials). There even was an expression, 'pisat'sia s vichem' (the right "to have their names written with <-ovich>"), to describe this honor, which was granted by the Tsar himself. [1] We therefore recommend that you do not use the suffix <-ovich>, but rather the more common <-ov>. We find the byname from sometime between 1459 and 1469, as well as the variant in 1556 and 1565 and the feminine form in 1319. [1] This byname means simply 'son of Mikhail', and it would have been interpreted as referring to your father's name and not, in general, where you lived. [5] In the 16th century, was pronounced roughly \mee-KHEY-l@f\, where \KH\ is the sound of in Scottish , \EY\ rhymes with , and \@\ is the sound of in or . [8] The Archangel Michael Monastery dates back to the twelfth century, but the city which was eventually named after it, Arkhangel'sk, wasn't founded until 1584, when it was known as . [4] We therefore can't recommend a byname based on the place . Since you said that your persona is an orphan, we thought you might also be interested in the surnames 1552 or 1633; these both mean 'orphan'. [1] The spelling is a bit of an oddity; the standard modern spelling of the word is , and we're not sure why the was dropped in the 1552 example. Depending on the circumstances, you might have been known as or ; it's unlikely that both bynames would have been used together, though. was pronounced roughly \see-roh-TAH\. Heraldry was not used by Russians in our period. [2,3] Of course, many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. What you do depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. However, since there was no heraldry in your culture, if you want arms that are authentic for your period, you'll need to follow the heraldic style of some other culture. You might want to choose arms typical of some Eastern European culture, so that they could plausibly have been imported to Russia. 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 letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Maridonna Benvenuti, Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Aelfwynn Leoflaede dohtor, William Lyons of Portland, and Ari Ansson. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael -- References: [1] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names", 2nd edition (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1996), s.nn. Gavriil, Mikhail, Sirot, Sirota, and the chapter on grammar http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/ [2] Da'ud ibn Auda and Alison MacDermot, "Regional Style Heraldry in the SCA", Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings, 1993 (SCA Inc.). [3] Michael Medvedev, officer in the Russian state heraldic office, personal communication. [4] "Arkhangelsk" (WWW: Wikipedia.org, 17 June 2006) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkhangelsk [5] There are some locative bynames (bynames based on place names) which were formed analogously to patronymic bynames (bynames based on the bearer's father's given name), but we have no idea whether that would happen in your particular case or not. [6] [6] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "Locative Bynames in Medieval Russia" (WWW: SCA, Inc.). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/toprus.html [7] Superanskaja, A.V. Spravochnik Lichnyx Imen Narodov RSFSR, 3rd edn. (Moscow: Russkij Jazyk, 1987), p. 445 s.n. Gavrila [8] "Russian Language" (WWW: Wikipedia.org, 3 August 2006) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language