Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 368

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 368

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/368

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on the name "Runa Elora Wolffenburg."

Our sources show that this name would not have been used in Northern Germany between 1357-1375. There are several issues.

First, middle names as we use them today generally weren't used in your period. There were a few examples of double names, but in these rare names the first name is common. We'd recommend against using a middle name.

We didn't find any German examples of "Runa" from the 14th century or any other period. We did find it in Old Norse from sometime in the 10th century. Old Norse is a Germanic language, but it was not spoken in Germany, and was not spoken in continental Europe at all by the 14th century. We did find a number of 14th-century names ending in "runa," (1) including

We didn't find any examples of "Elora" at all, and we have no idea where it might have come from.

Names meaning "wolf's <place>" are common, but they use "Wolfs" rather than "wolffen." Examples (2) include:

Generally, these placenames are used with "von" (meaning "of") in place-names.

So, for a name from your period, we would recommend using a name something like "Frideruna von Wolfsberg." If you're interested in finding a completely different given name, let us know what you're interested in (even a starting letter would be helpful) and we'll try to find something useful.

Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Arval Benicoeur contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Mulch, R. "Arnsburger Personnamen."

(2) Brechenmacher.