ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3140 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3140 ************************************ 12 Nov 2006 From: Ursula Whitcher Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for a list of Nubian names appropriate for a Christian woman living between 1300 and 1400. You also mentioned that you were interested in a byname meaning "from the sea". We'll discuss the given name first, and then the byname. During your period, Nubia was conquered by Islamic forces from Egypt. [1] We have found some information on Christian Nubian names, but most of our data comes from an earlier era. In previous correspondence, we suggested you look at the names in the article "Feminine Nubian Given Names from Coptic Inscriptions": http://www.doomchicken.net/~ursula/sca/onomastics/nubian/femininenubian.html We've expanded this article, adding several more women's names as well as a list of Christian Nubian men's names. You can find the new front page for the article at: http://www.doomchicken.net/~ursula/sca/onomastics/nubian/nubian.html We also found a few feminine names incorporating the word or , meaning 'daughter', in an article on Old Nubian etymology: [2] Michae:ln| asi 'daughter of Michael' (may refer to Saint Michael) Maria|kon asti 'daughter of Mariakol (he who has Mary)' E|non asti 'daughter of one who has found' I"raen| asti 'daughter of one who causes to bear/engender'? Mousen asti 'daughter of Mousa' or Moushen asti 'daughter of Moushe' R|tn| asi 'daughter of the potentiary' or 'daughter of Irta' Tamtn| asti 'daughter of the furnace' Tamtikon asti 'daughter of Tamtikon (he who has a furnace)' or Tamitikon asti Parkin asti 'daughter of the valley' Gehin asi 'daughter of the mountain' (In the above list, stands for the letter eta, and represents the letter iota with a pair of dots above it. The pipe <|> represents a horizontal line above the preceding letter; it indicates that this letter is pronounced as a separate syllable.) We did not find any evidence that a byname meaning "from the sea" was used in Nubia in your period. In fact, most of the Nubian women that we've found were identified by just a single given name, without any byname at all. However, we did find examples of a few women identified by words describing titles or offices such as queen or nun. We also found some women identified as their father's daughters. [3] Once you choose a name for your father, we'd be happy to help you construct this type of byname. I hope this letter has been clear. If you have more questions, or would like to know the pronunciation of a particular name, please don't hesitate to write to us again. Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, William Lyons of Portland, Blaise de Cormeilles, Mari neyn Brian, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Juliana de Luna assisted in researching and writing this report. For the Academy, Ursula Georges 12 November 2006 References: [1] Derek A. Welsby, _The medieval kingdoms of Nubia: pagans, Christians and Muslims along the Middle Nile_ (London : British Museum Press, 2002). [2] H. Satzinger, "Greek and Coptic Epigraphy from Nubia", in Mat Immerzeel and Jacques van der Vliet, ed.s, _Coptic Studies on the Threshold of a New Millennium_ (Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2004). [3] Jacques van der Vliet, _Catalogue of the Coptic Inscriptions in the Sudan National Museum at Khartoum_ (Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2003).