ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3297 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3297 ************************************ 14 Jun 2007 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate given name for a Germanic Saxon man living between 500 and 800, and if it wouldn't you asked if we could recommend names beginning with something which sounds like , , , etc. You also wanted to know if a byname meaning 'the shameful' would be authentic. Here is what we have found. As you know from your own research, there are vanishingly few Old Saxon sources from the period you're interested in. Early medieval record-keeping was largely dependent on the Church for educated clerks, and for most of your period the Saxons were not at all hospitable towards Christianity. They also had no central authority that might have given rise to an administrative bureaucracy. This changed only when they were conquered by Charlemagne in the last quarter of the 8th century, incorporated into his empire, and forcibly converted to Christianity. Various chroniclers, writing either long after the fact or from a Frankish point of view, mention a very few of the Saxon leaders by name, but we're not aware of any actual Old Saxon sources before the 9th century. As you realized, the list of Old English name elements that you found at [1] is at best a makeshift substitute for actual Old Saxon names. It's true that Old English and Old Saxon are closely related languages and that their speakers had broadly similar naming practices and used many closely related names. However, the Old English and Old Saxon name stocks were probably not identical to begin with, and over time they diverged substantially. The element is a good example of one of the ways in which such divergence could occur: it's actually an Old English borrowing from Scandinavian that has no Old Saxon counterpart. , , and , the three names used at that site to exemplify it, are actually borrowings into Old English of Old Norse <{TH}orketill>, <{TH}orfr{o|}{dh}r>, and <{TH}orsteinn>, respectively. [2] (Here <{TH}> stands for the letter thorn, which looks like a superimposed on a

so that the loops coincide; stands for a slashed ; and <{dh}> stands for the letter edh, which looks like a backwards <6> with a short stroke through the upright part.) These and many other Old English borrowings from Scandinavian occurred during the period of Scandinavian settlement in England, starting in the late 9th century, when English and Scandinavians were living side by side in many parts of the country. The integration of these borrowings into the native name stock was accompanied by the appearance of a few hybrid names combining Scandinavian and Old English name elements. An example is the feminine name <{TH}orwif>, combining Scandinavian <{TH}or-> and Old English <-wif>, though the earliest surviving instances are only from the 12th century. [3] We even found one likely instance of the hybrid , with Old English <-sige>, a moneyer active around the year 1000. [4] The Continental Saxons, however, had no comparable opportunity to borrow Old Norse names and name elements. Moreover, the Proto-Germanic root that gave rise to Old Norse <{TH}or-> developed very differently in Old Saxon and its Continental Germanic neighbors: Old Saxon , Old Frisian , and Old High German . [5] Thus, an early Saxon name beginning something like or would have to derive from some other first element. Examination of attested first elements of Germanic names turned up only two that merited further consideration; unfortunately, neither panned out. One is Proto-Germanic * 'an animal', which eventually became German 'an animal' and English ; in many Germanic languages it gave rise to a name element at least roughly similar to what you're looking for (e.g., Old English ). There is no evidence, however, that this happened in Old Saxon, which seems to lack this name element altogether. [6] The other is Proto-Germanic *<{th}urisaz> 'a giant', which became Old Saxon , Old English <{th}yrs>, Old Norse <{th}urs>, and Gothic <{th}au/ris>, all common nouns meaning 'a giant'. [7] (The slash stands for an acute accent over the preceding letter.) The corresponding name element was rare: besides the handful of certain early Gothic instances we have found only a few possible late West Frankish examples. [8,9] In particular, we have no evidence that it was used by the Saxons. For your period of 500 CE - 800 CE we can see only one way to come up with an Old Saxon name that has some reasonable chance of being authentic, though only for the end of that period: pick an Old Saxon name recorded in the 9th century, on the assumption that it was probably in use a century earlier. For the most part this is a pretty safe assumption, though we do know of a few names that significantly changed form during that period. [10] From our very limited resources we've assembled a list of 9th century Old Saxon names; you'll find it at the end of this letter. As we've already explained, none of them fits your preferred pattern, but they're a starting point if you decide that having an Old Saxon name is more important to you than the specific sound pattern or the like. During the period that you are interested in, most people generally did not use any byname. Even when we do have examples of names in Continental Germanic records which do have bynames, none of them are descriptive bynames like 'the shameful'. Instead, they're things like the following: [11] Wistrimundus cognomento Tato, 6th c. Frankish 'Wistrimundus called Tato' Wursingus cognomento Ado, 7th c. Frisian 'Wursingus called Ado' Atta sive Angilsuinda, 774 Frankish 'Atta or Angilsuinda' For the best re-creation, we recommend that you use just a given name, and no byname. However, given these three examples, a name constructed with the form is not impossible. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you will write again if you have further questions or if anything was unclear. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Mari neyn Brian. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 14 June 2007 -- References: [1] "Authentic Names" (Regia Anglorum, 2004, 2007). http://www.regia.org/members/names.htm [2] Insley, John, _Scandinavian personal names in Norfolk: a survey based on medieval records and place-names_ (Uppsala: Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy; Stockholm: Distributor, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1994), s.nn. {TH}orfr{o|}{dh}r, {TH}orke(ti)ll, {TH}orsteinn. <{TH}ur-> is the Old East Scandinavian (Danish) counterpart of Old West Scandinavian (Norwegian, Icelandic) <{TH}or->. [3] Fellows Jensen, Gillian, _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968), s.n. {TH}orwi:f. [4] Searle, William George, _Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum_ (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1897), s.n. Thursige. This source is not altogether trustworthy, especially as to the documentary forms of names, but we have no reason to doubt the existence of a moneyer bearing some form of this name. [5] De Vries, Jan, _Altnordisches Etymologisches Wo"rterbuch_, 2nd edn. (Boston: Brill, 2000), s.v. {TH}o/rr. [6] Mu"ller, Gunter, _Studien zu den Theriophoren Personennamen der Germanen_ (Ko"ln: Bo"hlau Verlag, 1970), p. 102. The asterisk on * means that this is an unattested ancestral form reconstructed by historical linguists. [7] de Vries, op. cit. s.n. {th}urs. [8] Piel, Joseph M., and Kremer, Dieter, _Hispano-gotisches Namenbuch_ (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universita"tsverlag, 1976), Section 274. [9] Morlet, Marie-The/re\se, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Sie\cle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1968, 1972, 1985), I:76b. A case can be made that Morlet has included several names under DUR- that do not belong here. [10] Tiefenbach, Heinrich. 'Schreibsprachliche und gentile Pra"gung von Personennamen im Werdener Urbar A', in Dieter Geuenich, Wolfgang Haubrichs, & Jo"rg Jarnut, _Nomen et gens_ (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1997), pp. 259-278. Note 76, p. 275, points out that the change of to can be dated to about the middle of the 9th century, so the on p. 265, which is from about 880-885, would have to be modified to for the late 8th century. A real specialist could probably carry this further and offer reconstructions of early 6th century forms with some confidence, but we don't have that level of expertise. Specifically, while we know generally what changes occurred in the development of recorded Old Saxon from Proto-Germanic, we lack the kind of detailed knowledge of their chronology that a specialist might have. [11] Stark, Franz, _Die Kosenamen der Germanen_ (Wiesbaden: Dr. Martin Sa"ndig oHG., 1967 [1868]), pp. 150-7. -- Appendix The following masculine names are drawn from one of the oldest documents of a former Benedictine abbey at Werden an der Ruhr (now Essen-Werden). The abbey was founded sometime around 800 CE; this part of the document is from the period 880-885 or thereabouts and pertains specifically to the abbey's holdings in Westphalia, within the Old Saxon language area. [10] After each name is an approximate pronunciation. For the most part they are intended to be self-explanatory, but several points probably do require explanation: * \u\ stands for the vowel of . * \@\ stands for the sound of in and . * \art\ always rhymes with , even in the combination \wart\. * \th\ stands for the sound of in and , not the sound in and . * \dh\ stands for the sound of in and , not the sound in and . * \kh\ stands for the sound of in Scottish and German and . * \gh\ stands for the voiced counterpart of \kh\, i.e., the sound that is related to \kh\ as \g\ is related to \k\. * \ph\ stands for a sound similar to \f\ but made with the two lips rather than with the lower lip and upper teeth; the result is rather like the sound of blowing out a candle. It was later replaced by \f\, which can be substituted for it if \ph\ proves too awkward. * \bh\ stands for the voiced counterpart of \ph\, i.e., the same sound but made with the vocal cords vibrating. This is the sound of in Spanish 'wolf' and in Spanish 'grape'. To make it, position your lips and vocal cords to say a \b\, but relax your lips slightly so that the air escapes between them with a buzzing sound. It was later replaced by \v\, which can be substituted for it if \bh\ proves too awkward. has secondary stress on the second syllable; all other names with three or more syllables have secondary stress on the third syllable. Abbo \AHB-bo\ Alfger \AHLBH-gair\ Alfgot \AHLBH-goht\ Alfrad \AHLBH-raht\ Athaluuard \AH-dhahl-wart\ (as in ) Benno \BEN-no\ Betto \BET-to\ Daggrim \DAHG-greem\ Egiluuerk \AY-ghil-wairk\ Folker \FOHL-kair\ Gaddo \GAHD-do\ Germar \GAIR-mar\ Geuo \GAY-bho\ Hathuuuard \HAH-dhu-wart\ (as in , ) Helmbraht \HELM-brahkht\ Hrodbreht \HROAD-brekht\ Iko \EE-ko\ Lethrad \LAYDH-raht\ Liafric \LEE@BH-reek\ Liahto \LEE@KH-to\ Liuddag \LEEud-dahkh\ (as in ) Liudico \LEEud-ih-ko\ (as in ) Liudric \LEEud-reek\ (as in ) Meginuuard \MAY-ghin-wart\ (as in ) Nortlec \NORT-layk\ Osbraht \OAZ-brahkht\ Rathard \RAHT-hart\ Reginheri \RAY-ghin-heh-rih\ Reginuuard \RAY-ghin-wart\ (as in ) Rikbern \REEK-bairn\ Sigibraht \SIH-ghih-brahkht\ [*] Thiadlef \THEE@T-layph\ UUendilmar \WEN-dil-mar\ UUilheri \WIL-heh-rih\ [*] The document actually has , but as noted earlier, in your period the first element was still .