ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3140
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3140
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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 <asi> or
<asti>, 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, <e:> stands for the letter eta, and <I">
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).