ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3372 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3372 ************************************ From: Melissa Barton 23 Apr 2010 Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! We apologize for the time it has taken to complete this letter. We hope that it is still of use to you. You asked us to suggest a time and place for which a name meaning 'Shoshana(or Shoshanna) daughter of Reuven' would be appropriate. You specified that you would accept any transliteration of the name, and did not have a problem using the Hebrew spelling and alphabet. You were also interested in < Shoshana Simcha> as a double given name. In this letter we will use standard Hebrew forms to refer to the name elements generically. derives from the Hebrew noun meaning "lily" or "rose." The name is not found in the Hebrew Bible, although the Hebrew common noun from which it derives appears in Song of Songs 2:1. The earliest evidence for the use of the name is the apocryphal book of Susanna. (The Apocrypha are not part of the Hebrew Bible.) Although was used by medieval Christians, was not a common Jewish name before 1600 and is not often encountered in records referring to Ashkenazic Jewish bearers [1]. We could not find examples of among Sephardic Jews. In Hebrew, it is spelled [shin vav shin nun heh]. Examples in Hebrew are found in Germany, dated from 1318 to before 1342, and Austria, dated to 1641 [1]. We also found references in Czech-language records to Jewish women using names that are forms of : in 1481, in 1545, and in 1546. is derived from the Hebrew noun "joy" (it may also be transliterated as , , or ). It has the distinction of being one of only a few Hebrew names we have found that were used by both men and women throughout Europe in our period. As a feminine name, appears numerous times in Hebrew records in Germany [1,2], dated between 1211 and c. 1660 [1]; in Navarre (Spain), dated c. 1325 and c. 1362 [3]; and in Prague (modern Czech Republic), dated to 1648. In Hebrew, it was spelled [sin mem khet heh]. Both and may be transliterated without the final silent /h/. is a Biblical given name (Genesis 29:32) that was used by Jews from Italy and southern France before it spread to Germany in the 13th century; its spread was both by migration and by direct borrowing from the Bible [1]. It appears in Hebrew-language records from Kiev (Russia) in the 10th century [1] and Germany in the 13th to 17th centuries [1,4]. It can also be documented among Sephardic Jews in 13th-15th century Catalonia in Latinized form as [8]. The Hebrew spelling is [resh alef vav bet nun-sofit]. Patronymic bynames (i.e., those that identify the father) are traditionally used in Jewish names, so (Ashkenazic) or (Sephardic) would be an excellent feminine name in Hebrew. ('Daughter of', and , are discussed in [7].) Both name elements were very common throughout Europe [1]. is a less likely name, mostly limited to 14th-century Germany. The use of a double given name like is uncommon for Jewish women in our period; we found three examples from late 13th- to mid-14th-century Rhineland (Germany) and three from 16th century Prague [1]. These sources do not provide examples of a double given name combined with a patronymic byname, but we consider it possible in formal documents like wills and census records. However, most of these double given name examples consist of one Hebrew name and one vernacular name, e.g. . There is less evidence for double given Hebrew names. In addition, the name pattern is found in Hebrew, where 'X' is a Hebrew name and 'Y' is a vernacular form or different Germanic name that has been transliterated into Hebrew; this occurred in Germany between the 13th and 16th centuries [1]. As example of this pattern would be . For your desired name, you have several plausible options, depending on whether you wish to have a name as it would have been written in Hebrew (see above), as it would have been used in Yiddish among the Jews themselves in everyday life, or as it would have been used when a Jew interacted with her non-Jewish neighbors or in non-Jewish documents. Here we have focused on Hebrew possibilities. Records in Hebrew tended to be formal in nature, so may not reflect the names used in everyday life (kinnuim) among the Jews themselves. Feminine names tended to be secular only, so their names in Hebrew and non-Jewish sources were more likely to correspond to what they used from day to day than male names [1]. To summarize, in Hebrew, is an excellent Jewish name through much of Europe during the 13th to 16th centuries. would be a fine name for 14th-century Germany. While have no specific examples of a double given name used with a patronymic, we believe that would be a possible, if unusual, name for 14th century Rhineland (Germany), at least for formal written use. Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Dominic Beniamin, Blaise de Cormeilles, Brian Dorcha ua Connail, Bronwen ferch Gwyn ap Rhys, D'vorah bat Atar, Juetta Copin, Juliana de Luna, Lillia de Vaux, Mari neyn Brian, Sheryn, Talan Gwynek, Ursula Georges, and Gunnvor silfraharr contributed to this letter. We hope it has been useful to you and that you will not hesitate to write us again if you have any questions. For the Academy, Lillia de Vaux and Leonor Ruiz de Liso/n 23 April 2010 -- References and Notes: [1] Beider, Alexander. _A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure. Pronunciation, and Migrations_ Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, 2000. Note: appears under the header (p. 570), the feminine form of under (pp. 572-3), and under (pp. 407-8). The German loan translation is found under (pp. 503-5). Many of Beider's sources use modern transliterations, and where he transliterated Yiddish phonetic forms from Hebrew to Latin characters, he used a standard Yiddish to English scheme. [2] Socin, Adolf. _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts_. Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn,1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966. pp. 561-4. [3] Kahen, Julie. "Jewish Women's Names in 13th to 15th Century Navarre". (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, no date). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juetta/nav_intro.html [4] Stampnitzky, Julie, "Names from Hebrew Chronicles of the 10th to 13th Centuries" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, no date). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juetta/crusades.html [5] Codex Gigas. Manuscript A 148, leaf 4v (WWW: National Library of Sweden, no date). http://www.kb.se/codex-gigas/eng/ Note: The Codex Gigas is an early 13th-century manuscript from Bohemia that includes the Latin Vulgate. appears on page 4v, column 1, line 6: http://www.kb.se/codex-gigas/eng/Browse-the-Manuscript/Bible-Old-Testament/Forsta-Moseboken-Genesis/ [6] J{u"}rgen, Hans and Herbst, Ronny. _Luther's Biblia (1545)_ (WWW: self-published, 2008). http://lutherbibel.net/ [7] Stampnitzky, Julie. "Medieval Jewish Names Research: Glossary for Titles and Bynames" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2003). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juetta/titles.html [8] Smith, Julia. "Jews in Catalonia: 1250 to 1400" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/catalan-jews/