ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3312 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3312 ************************************ 3 Sep 2007 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an authentic name for a medieval French Jew. Here is what we have found. As you found, the name was moderately common in Paris in the early 15th century. [1] At the end of the 13th century we find the spelling used in Paris as well. [2] Either spelling is fine for the end of the 13th century through the 15th century. During this period we find a number of examples of the byname , in different spellings, including: [3] Cressant le Iuif, 1292 Nate le Iuif, 1292 Abeley le Juif, 1308 Hakin le Juif, 1308 Haquin le Juef, 1314 Cressent le Juef, 1314 And we also found the Latin form 'called Jewish' in 1310. [3] The question, then, is whether the combination of and is plausible. The given names used by the Jews and the ones used by the Christians in France during this period in general overlapped very little. However, we do have examples of Jewish men and women using non-Hebrew names. These examples tend to fall into one of two categories: those adopted because of their meaning and those adopted because they sound similar to some Jewish name. The only name that we've found which doesn't fit clearly in to either of these categories is . [4,8] The first category includes names chosen as direct translations of a Hebrew name, such as the following: [4,5] HEBREW NON-HEBREW Yehudah Lyon Baruch Benedict Nesanel Deodat, Theodoros Malka Reinne This category also includes names adopted because of their attractive meaning, without having any relation to a Hebrew name already in use, such as , from French 'dear'. [4] The second type includes names such as [5], which sounds similar to the Hebrew name [6], and forms of [5], which sound similar to Hebrew . In Germany, we find (the Latin form of and German ) used as an equivalent with Hebrew , because of their phonetic similarities. There are other examples of forms of being used by German Jews, which could be substitutes for Hebrew names such as and . [7] Based on this, it's not impossible that a Jewish man named in Hebrew could have been known as in French. We cannot say for sure that is an authentic name for a French Jew, but it seems not implausible. 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 question. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Adelaide de Beaumont, Juetta Copin, Mari neyn Brian, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 03 September 2007 -- References: [1] Friedemann, Sara L., "French Names from Paris, 1421, 1423 & 1438" (WWW: privately published, 2002-2003). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/paris1423.html [2] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html [3] Le/vy, Paul, _Les Noms des Israélites en France: Histoire et Dictionnaire_, (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1960), s.nn. Abel, Cressant, Haquet, Juif. [4] Geraud, Hercule, _Paris sous Philippe-le-Bel: d'apre/s des documents originaux et notamment d'apre/s un manuscript contenant Le Ro^le de la taille impose/e sur les habitants de Paris en 1292_ (Paris: Crapelet, 1837), pp. 178-179. [5] Le/vy, op. cit., s.nn. Anselme, Dieudonne. [6] Beider, Alexander, _A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciation, and Migrations (Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, 2000), p. 276. [7] ibid., p. 350. [8] It's possible that was chosen for its vague similarity to , according to Beider (op. cit.), p. 288. [9] Beider, op. cit., p. 429.