ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3162 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3162 ************************************ 21 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 French man. is the normal modern spelling of a name that was very common throughout our period. We have some examples of this spelling in the 16th century, but the more common spelling in our data, even in the 16th century, is . [1,2,3,4] Compound given names in French were almost non-existent before the 16th century, and during the 16th century were still rare. However, we have found a few examples, including the following (all of which are listed in standard modern forms of the elements, so they should not be taken as a guide for spellings): [5] Jean Marc de Jamart 1601 Jean Robert de He/lin 1582 Jean-Baptiste de Rogres 1581 Jean-Francisque de Selve 1557, 1574 Jean-Jacques de Mesmes 1537, 1539 Jean-Louis Vachot 1588 Jean-Pierre Camus 1579 (In this letter, the slash represents an acute accent over the previous letter). We found one example of in Provins (50 miles SE of Paris) in 1587, and three in Bordeaux between 1470 and 1520. [4,6] was not nearly as popular as , , , , and the other second elements in the compound names listed above. Based on this, we're not sure whether is a plausible compound name or not. The modern French word means 'crow'. The phrase 'of the crow' doesn't follow any patterns of French bynames that we know of. We recommend that you do not use . The earlier form of is , which we find used as a byname in the 13th C, 1340, 1404, and 1438. [8] While we haven't found any examples of , the variant can be found in 1389 and 1422. [8] We believe that itself is plausible as early as the 13th century, and that it could have been quite common by the 14th. We can therefore tentatively recommend as a fine 16th-century byname. We also found a number of other similarly-spelled bynames which might interest you: Corbin 1448 (this is from 'crow') [8] de Corbie 1384, 1459-60, 1551 ( is a town in Picardy) [7,8] du Corbier 1587 (from a place with lots of crows) [4,9] Any of these would be a fine choice for your byname. 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 Mari neyn Brian, Juliana de Luna, Ines Alfon, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 21 August 2006 -- References: [1] Friedemann, Sara L., "French Names from 1601" (WWW: privately published, 2002). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/french1601.html In this source, is the more common spelling; so if you prefer this spelling, you may want to set your persona in the far north of France, in Artois or Hainaut. [2] Cateline de la Mor, "Sixteenth Century Norman Names" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/cateline/norman16.html [3] Michel Robert, "Crew of the 'Le Christophe' in 1535" (WWW: privately published, accessed 16 May 2002). http://www.geocities.com/~carignan/E15Christophe.html [4] Friedemann, Sara L. "Names from a 1587 Tax Roll from Provins" (WWW: privately published, 2002) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/provins1587.html [5] Archives nationales (France), _Hommages rendus a\ la Chambre de France: Chambre des comptes de Paris, se/rie P, XIVe-XVIe sie\cles: inventaire analytique_ (Paris: Les Archives: Diffuse/ par la Documentation franc,aise, 1982-1985, volume 1, entries 588, 822, 823, 1762, 1995, 2421, 2422, 2943, 3170; volume 2, entry 2100. [6] Friedemann, Sara L., "Names Found in Commercial Documents from Bordeaux, 1470-1520" (WWW: privately published, 2000). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/bordeaux.html [7] Uckelman, Sara L., "Late Period French Feminine Names" (WWW: Self-published, 2005) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/latefrench.html [8] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967), pp. 306, 322 [9] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Corbier.