ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3329 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3329 ************************************ 31 Aug 2007 From: Aine Steele Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our opinion of as a 13th-15th century French given name. You also asked about the given names and as a second given name, and as a byname. Here is what we found. France today is a unified country with a common language. That was not true in our period: pre-modern France was home to several languages, each of which was used in a range of dialects, some quite similar, some quite different. The most significant division was between the langue d'oil, or French, spoken in the north, and the langue d'oc, also called Occitan or Provenc,al, spoken in the south (here the comma represents a cedilla under the letter ). These were different languages, not just dialects of the same language, and names in them were often quite different. The name you've selected is more typical of the langue d'oil regions than the langue d'oc regions. As a result, we've focused our efforts on researching your name as though it were French rather than Occitan. We cannot find specific examples of , but we can theorize that it was in use during the early part of your period. In England, we find the name , a Latinized form, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries [1]. The name was used early in the Middle Ages in France as well. It appears Latinized as in the early 9th century and the name of Saint Sabine appears in place names from the 10th century to the 14th [2, 2a]. The use of the diminutive some time after the late 12th century England suggests that some form of the name was used in France around the time of the Conquest [1]. was probably a learned form based on the Latin ; the French form of the name was most likely . The name is a name which we have only found in English sources; this spelling can be dated as early as 1450 [3]. It appears in modern French as (where the slash represents an acute accent over ). Without this modern accent, we find with this name once in the late 13th century in Paris [4], four times in the first half of the 15th century in Paris [5], and twice in the second half of the 15th century in Choisy [6]. These places are both located in French-speaking regions. The similar-sounding is an Occitan name as well as a moderately common Latin form; we find a single instance in the 14th century in Saint Flour [7]. Pet forms of the name were not uncommon, but is not the best choice for you. Our two instances of this spelling come from Pe/rigueux in the 14th century, where a dialect of Occitan was spoken [8]. However, the French spelling we find once in the late 13th century [4], twice in the first half of the 15th century [5], and four times in the later half of the 15th century [6]. We do not find examples of double given names in French until the sixteenth century; unfortunately, this is after the period you are interested in. As a result, we cannot recommend a double given name to you as an accurate recreation of a 13th to 15th century French name. The byname construction in France was used to create both patronymic (indicating the person's father) and locative (indicating the place a person was from) bynames [9]. We could not find any reference to a place called ; however, we have evidence of it being used as a masculine given name. In the early part of your period, it would have been more commonly seen as , , or . The spelling begins to appear in the later part of your period [4, 10]. In summary, the given names , , and are fine names for a northern Frenchwoman in your period, but not as a double given name. The patronymic byname is excellent for the early part of your period, while the spelling is only appropriate for the later part of your period. I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Aine Steele 31 August 2007 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Nicolaa de Bracton, "A Statistical Survey of Given Names in Essex Co., England, 1182-1272", Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings 1995 (SCA Inc.; WWW: privately published). http://members.tripod.com/nicolaa5/articles/women.html [2] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972), II:101a. [2a] Morlet, III:174a. Modern places appear in medieval records as c.970, 1257) and ( 1071, 1178, 1248, 1339. [3] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). [4] 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 [5] Friedemann, Sara L., "French Names from Paris, 1421, 1423 & 1438" (WWW: privately published, 2002-2003). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/paris1423.html [6] Uckelman, Sara L., "Names from Choisy, France, 1475-1478" (WWW: Self-published, 2005) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/choisy.html [7] Uckelman, Sara L., "Occitan names from Saint Flour, France, 1380- 1385" (WWW: Self-published, 2005) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/saintflour.html [8] Friedemann, Sara L., "Feminine Names from Pe/rigueux, 1339-1340" (WWW: Self-published, 2003) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/perigueux.html [9] Academy of St. Gabriel Report #2899 (WWW: Academy of St. Gabriel, 2004) http://www.s-gabriel.com/2899 [10] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987).