ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3288 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3288 ************************************ 17 Aug 2007 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked for help developing an authentic name for a 9th century Mozarabic woman meaning "Sophia daughter of Paul from Almeria", and wanted to know if is correct. You also wanted to know if you should be using a Spanish language name instead of an Arabic language name. Here is what we have found. There are many different languages which a Mozarabic woman of your time could have had her name recorded in, the most common being Arabic, Latin, and the Romance pre-cursor to Spanish. Because the elements you've asked about are Arabic, we've discussed Arabic names first. The name can be more properly transliterated , where the dot represents a period underneath the . was the name of one of the Prophet's wives, and we find it recorded in the al-Andalus in the 11th and 12th centuries. We do not have any evidence that it was used earlier, so it is not the best choice for a woman living in the 9th century. We should also note that this name is not related to . is derived from Greek and Latin word 'wisdom', whereas is identical with the Arabic word 'to be pure'. [1,2,3,4,5] The Apostle Paul was known as in Arabic, but we have not found any evidence yet that was in the general name pool of Arabic in your period. The only part of the Arabic form of your name that we can recommend is the final byname. The byname means 'from Almaria', and we also find this in use in the al-Andalus in the 8th to 12th centuries. [5] The correct form depends on whether you intend it to refer to yourself or to your father. If the byname refers to your father, then is appropriate. If you want the byname to refer to you, then you'd use the feminine form . Turning now to non-Arabic names, we must note that we have few resources for Romance names from this era, and many references that we have are actually from Latin-language records. In these Latin records, we find a reference to a 9th century priest who changed his name to upon conversion, so this is a fine choice for your father's name. [6] A woman who was the daughter of a man named could have used either or as a byname. [7] We were not able to find any examples of in Iberia in the 9th century. [8] Because our sources for Romance feminine names of this period are so slim, we are not able to conjecture whether it is plausible. The best we can do is offer you a handful of 10th century Ibero-Romance feminine names: [9,10] Ava Justa Paterna Peraciosa Speciosa Tegridia Urraca A name such as is plausible for the 10th century, and probably also for the 9th century, though we cannot confirm this. 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 Ursula Georges, Maridonna Benvenuti, Lucien d'Artois, Juliana de Luna, Talan Gwynek, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 17 August 2007 -- References: [1] Da'ud ibn Auda, "Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices," (WWW: SCA.org, 2003) http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/arabic-naming2.htm [2] Schimmel, Annemarie, _Islamic Names_ (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989). p. 63 [3] Arabic has two different sounds, represented by two different letters in Arabic script. When Arabic is written in Roman letters, one of these letters is transcribed as a plain , the other as an with a dot under it. We've used to stand for this second letter. The two letters are pronounced somewhat differently in Arabic, but the difference is not easily described; the ordinary English sound of is a reasonable approximation to either. If you want to try for more accuracy, we can only recommend that you find someone who speaks Arabic. [4] Mari/n, Manuela, _Mujeres en al-Andalus. Reflejos histo/ricos de su actividad y categori/as sociales._ Estudios onoma/sticos- biogra/ficos de Al-Andalus, 11. (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cienti/ficas, 2000), p. 60. [5] Juliana de Luna, "Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 2001). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/andalusia/ [6] Allen Cabaniss, "Paulus Albarus of Muslim Cordova", _Church History_, Vol. 22, No. 2. (Jun., 1953), pp. 99-112. [7] Diez Melcon, R. P. Gonzalo, _Apellidos Castellano-Leoneses: Siglos IX-XIII, ambos inclusive_ (Universidad de Granada, 1957), p. 50. [8] In fact, we haven't found any pre-1600 example of in Iberia. [9] Leonor Martin, "Nombres y Patroni/micos Leoneses, S. X" (WWW: Self-published, no date). http://www.historiaviva.org/nombres/nombres_leon10.html [10] Unpublished research of Juliana de Luna based on Menedez-Pidal, Ramon, _Crestomati/a del Espan~ol Medieval_ (Madrid: 1971) and Menedez-Pidal, Ramon, _Ori'genes del Espan~ol: Estado Lingu:istico de la Peni'nsula Ibe'rica Hasta el Siglo XI_ (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, S.A., 1964).