ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3247 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3247 ************************************ 22 Jan 2007 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an authentic Dutch name for a man living between 1350 and 1500, and if is an appropriate pet form of . Here is what we have found. is a fine choice for your given name; we find it recorded in the 15th century. [1] During this period we also find the nickname ; while we have no specific examples of men called both and , we would be amazed if was not used as a nickname for . The only examples of the double spelling that we found in Dutch are from the 16th century. [3,4,5,6] However, the spelling or was common in Low German in the 15th century, and as Low German and Dutch are similar in many respects, we would not be surprised to see in Dutch as well during this period. [7] We were not able to find any Dutch cognate of the German byname . However, while we have found examples of Dutch bynames that contain the Middle Dutch word for 'iron', or [8], and bynames containing the element <-houwer> or <-hower> [2], we don't believe that the combination of the two is a plausible Dutch byname. The German word means primarily 'to strike', which makes sense when used in the German byname 'strike iron'. The Middle High German word has this sense of striking, but the underlying sense is 'to strike with a cutting edge, to strike a cutting blow'. (This word is a cognate with the English word .) In Dutch, this underlying meaning appears to be the primary one: Modern Dutch is 'to hew, to quarry', and the two bynames we've found which use this element both use it in the meaning of 'to cut'. [10] It's therefore not clear whether is the type of word that could be used with 'iron'. Therefore, we cannot recommend as a plausible Dutch 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 Walraven van Nijmegen and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 22 January 2007 -- References: [1] Friedemann, Sara L., "15th Century Dutch Names" (WWW: privately published, 2000). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/dutch/dutch15.html [2] The three bynames , , and are found in Leiden in the 15th century. [9] [3] "Den block van de Weverplaets den ontfanck" (WWW: self-published, no date) http://home.planet.nl/~vera0000/WEVER.html [4] Beijers, Henk, "Raad en Rentmeester Generaal inventarisnummer 87" (WWW: No publication info, no date) lopabo.fontys.nl/jan_prive/Raad_Rentmr_Gen_Domeinen/RRG.087.doc [5] Van der Spiegel, Ronald & Frans van Rooijen, "Kohier Weekgeld Wassenaar 1573" (WWW: Interphase.nl, no date) http://www.interphrase.nl/frans/FransWeb/Archivalia/WassenaarWeekgeld.htm [6] "Wolf(hard) (M)" (WWW: Gemeentearchief.nl, no date). http://www.gemeentearchief.nl/boedels/voornamen/a/n795.htm [7] Engel, Franz, _Die Mecklenburgischen Kaiserbederegister von 1496_, Mitteldeutsche Forschungen 56 (Koeln: Boehlau Verlag, 1968), pp. 72, 153, 154, 156, 160, 222, 235, 236, 292, 296, 306. [8] 1318 Ernoul Dysendike 1326 Arnoud van Ysendike 1385 Lysebette Dysendike 1281 Hankin Yserin man 1336 Mathyas Yserman 1377 Margriete Ysermans 1584 Hendrick Isermans in Debrabandere, Frans. _Woordenboek van de Familienamen in Belgie en Noord-Frankrijk_ (Amsterdam & Antwerpen: L. J. Veen, 2003), s.n. Ysendy(c)k(e), Yserman(s) [9] Unpublished research of Aryanhwy merch Catmael. [10] The two bynames are 'stone cutter' mentioned above [2], and 'the meat-cutter'. [11] [11] Beele, Wilfried, _Studie van de Ieperse Persoonsnamen uit de Stads- en Baljuwsrekeningen 1250-1400_ (Handzame, 1975), nr. 2875 in the Synoptische Index (SI). The spellings used here are normalized, so is presumably some sort of standardized Middle Dutch form. The entries in the index aren't dated, but the data on which they're based are from the period 1250-1400.