ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3215
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3215
************************************

31 Oct 2006
From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael 

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You asked for help developing a name appropriate for an Italian woman
named <Elizabeta Maria> living in England in the late 16th century,
and wanted to know if the byname <de Rundel> is an authentic choice
for such a woman.  Here is what we have found.

While it is common in the SCA for people to indicate a mixing of
cultures by using elements from different languages in a single name,
this in general was not done during our period.  Instead, a person
would be known by a name consistent with the language of the place
where he lived; for example, the Englishman <John Hawkwood> was known
as <Giovanni Acuto> in Italian (<Giovanni> being the Italian form of
<John>, and <Acuto> a similar-sounding byname.) [2]  An Italian woman
living in England in the 16th century would therefore have had an
English-language name, not an Italian-language one.  

As it happens, we have some extensive information about how names of
foreigners living in London were recorded in English in the late 16th
century.  We have found references to Italian women recorded in
English with the names <Elizabeth> and <Marye> in 1571. [1]  Based on
this, we believe that an Italian woman named <Elizabeta Maria> would
be known as simply <Elizabeth Marye> in English.

There is a little village called <Rundale> in Shoreham, Kent, which we
find recorded as <Rundal> in 1275. [2]  The surname <Rundell>, which
is recorded in Cornwall in 1601, may be a later form of this place
name. [3]  While we do not have any examples of foreigners living in
England in the 16th century using literal locative bynames referring
to English places (such as <de Rundal>), it's likely that an Italian
woman married to an English man and living in England would have used
her husband's surname. [4]  Based on this, we can therefore recommend
<Elizabeth Marye Rundell> as a good name for an Italian woman living
in England and married to an Englishman with the surname <Rundell>.

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 you have further
questions.  Additional research and commentary on this letter was
provided by Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, and Adelaide de Beaumont.

For the Academy,
-Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 31 October 2006

--
References:

[1] Uckelman, Sara L., "Names of Aliens in London, 1571" (WWW:
Self-published, 2005-2006)
http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/aliens.html

[2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Rundall 

[3] Hitching, F.K. & Hitching, S, _References to English Surnames in
1601_ (Walton-on-Thames: Chas. A. Bernau, 1910), p. lviii.

[4] By the 15th century, the pattern of women taking their husband's
surnames upon marriage was fairly well established in England [5], and
examples of marriages between Englishmen and foreign men can be found
in the source used for [1].

[5] McKinley, Richard. _The Surnames of Oxfordshire_, English Surnames
Series III (London: Leopard's Head Press, 1977), p.191.