ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3127 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3127 ************************************ 3 Aug 2006 From: Guaire mac Guaire Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know whether was an authentic name for a woman living in the area of northern England/southern Scotland sometime within the period 1250 - 1350. Here is what we have found. Given names were usually Latinized in documents of your period, so occurs very frequently. [1] For evidence of the actual spoken form of the name we must rely on the evidence of bynames, which were often not Latinized at all, and of the occasional document or work written in Middle English. Such bynames as 1274 'Emm's (son)', 1330, and 1381, as well as the given name in 1327, are clear evidence of a vernacular (or ). [2,3] was pronounced as you'd expect. In the North was probably still pronounced \EM-m@\ at the beginning of the period, but by the end it was simply \EM\. was more or less \EM-m@t\. (In these pronunciation guides \@\ stands for the sound of in and .) We found two places named in the North of England, one in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and one in Northumberland, hence quite near the Scottish border. The latter appears as in 1217, 1242, and 1336, the former as throughout the period 1170-1358, as well as in a few less characteristic forms. [4] Both of these spellings are appropriate throughout your period. was pronounced roughly \OH-tehr-BOORN\ throughout the period. was pronounced roughly \OH-tehr-BOOR-n@\ at the beginning of your period and \OH-tehr-BOORN\ towards the end of it. In both cases the primary stress is on the first syllable. Two different prepositions are found in bynames of this kind. In most documents the preposition was used, even when the place-name wasn't Latinized at all. In the spoken language, however, the English preposition , pronounced roughly \ohf\, was used. Therefore, and are fine documentary forms for your period. In English the name would have been , or any of the variants obtained by substituting or for , or for . 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 were provided by Aelfwynn Leoflaede dohtor, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Eleyne de Comnocke, Ines Alfon, Maridonna Benvenuti, Margaret Makafee, Talan Gwynek, and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, Guaire mac Guaire 3 August 2006 ------------ References: [1] Talan Gwynek, _"Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997); s.n. . http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/ [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995); s.nn. , . [3] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980); s.n. [4] _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.