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 <Gavriil Mikhailovich Arkhangelsky> 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 <Gavriil> 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 <Gavril> or <Gavrilo>.  We found examples of
various patronymic bynames (a patronymic byname is one which indicates
the bearer's father's given name) based on <Gavril> or <Gavrilo>,
including <Gavrilov> in 1526-7 and <Gavrilovich> 1550. [1,7]  It's
certainly possible that <Gavriil> was used, but on the whole we
recommend either <Gavril> or <Gavrilo> for your given name.  <Gavril>
was pronounced roughly \gah-VREEL\, and <Gavrilo> roughly \gah-VREE-loh\.

<Mikhailovich> 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 <Mikhailov> from sometime between
1459 and 1469, as well as the variant <Mikhalov> in 1556 and 1565 and
the feminine form <Mikhailova> 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, <Mikhailov> was pronounced roughly \mee-KHEY-l@f\, where
\KH\ is the sound of <ch> in Scottish <loch>, \EY\ rhymes with <eye>,
and \@\ is the sound of <a> in <soda> or <about>. [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 <New Kholmogory>. [4]  We
therefore can't recommend a byname based on the place <Arkhangel'sk>.

Since you said that your persona is an orphan, we thought you might
also be interested in the surnames <Sirot> 1552 or <Sirota> 1633;
these both mean 'orphan'. [1]  The spelling <Sirot> is a bit of an
oddity; the standard modern spelling of the word is <Sirota>, and
we're not sure why the <a> was dropped in the 1552 example.  Depending
on the circumstances, you might have been known as <Gavril Sirota> or
<Gavril Mikhailov>; it's unlikely that both bynames would have been
used together, though.  <Sirota> 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