ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3318 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3318 ************************************ 7 Aug 2007 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked, on behalf of your sister, if is an authentic name for an English woman living in the 15th or 16th century. Here is what we have found. is a fine choice for your sister's given name, as we find it in both the 15th and 16th centuries. [1] The only examples of that we have found are references to the person you mentioned (Alice Might of Gunthorpe), and they all come from genealogical web pages. [2] Genealogical web pages unfortunately can vary a lot in their quality and reliability. Some genealogy sources do not retain the medieval spellings of names, but rather convert them all to modern forms, and many do not give any information about what their sources are. We have been unable to find any independent evidence for the surname . It's certainly reasonable to assume that some form of this surname was used in the 16th century, but the genealogical web pages do not reliably tell us what form, and we could find no further information in other sources. On the other hand, a byname based on the city of Gunthorpe is just fine. The city's name was spelled or consistently from 1088 onwards [3], and we have examples of the forms and used as surnames in 1623 and 1602, respectively. [4,5] We also found one in 1478-1484. [6] By the 15th and 16th centuries, it is unlikely that the preposition 'of' would have been used. Instead, we recommend , without the preposition, as an excellent 15th or 16 th century English feminine name. 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. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, and Brygyt Strangewayes. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 07 August 2007 -- References: [1] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997) dates the name to 1438 and 1588. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/ [2] The most complete page appears to be Anderson, Vernon "Descendants of Geoffrey Noreys" (WWW: Rootsweb.com, 22 Jan 1999) http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvmarsha/shepherd.txt [3] _Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society_, Edited by Victor Watts, Edited in association with John Insley, Margaret Gelling (Cambridge University Press: January 2004), s.n. Gunthorpe. [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Gunthorp. [5] Hitching, F. K., and S. Hitching, _References to English Surnames in 1601 and 1602_. (Walton-on-Thames, 1910-11; Baltimore: republished for the Clearfield Company, Inc. by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1998, ISBN 0-8603-0181-3). [6] "Prebendaries: Laughton", _Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300-1541_, vol. 6 Northern province (York, Carlisle, and Durham) (1963), pp. 64-5, (WWW: British History Online). http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=32536 &strquery=Gunthorpe