|
Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked how authentic the name <Adrianna Silvermane> would be for 14th century England.
The name <Adriana> was extremely rare in England in period. The only example that we have found is from 1547/8 (Bardsley s.n. Carn). On the other hand, we did find records of girls baptized with the masculine forms <Adryan> and <Adrian> in 1566 and 1586 respectively (Brooke & Hallen).
The use of masculine names by women was even more common in the 14th century (Withycombe, xxxv). These names were usually recorded with the Latin feminine ending <-a>, so that a woman called <Adrian> would have appeared in medieval records as <Adriana>. However, we have found no such record. Even as a man's name <Adrian> was not very common, though it is found occasionally from about 1200 on. It is therefore possible that a 14th century Englishwoman could have been named <Adrian> and been referred to in writing as <Adriana>, but we think that it is quite unlikely. We found no support for the spelling <Adrianna>.
We have found no period bynames that use the word <mane>. This may be because few new bynames were created after the 14th century, when <mane> still usually meant the hair on an animal's neck (OED s.n. mane). At any rate, <Silvermane> is not a likely period byname. However, we found several 14th century bynames expressing exactly this idea:
Silverlok/Selverlok 'silver locks, silver hair'
Silvertop 'silver top'
Shirlok/Schirlock/Schirloc/SkyrlokéShyrlok/Skirlok 'shining locks'
Any of these would be excellent.
Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn and Arval Benicoeur also contributed to this letter.
We hope that this has been helpful and that we can continue to assist you.
For the Academy,
Talan Gwynek
Bardsley, Charles Wareing. A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1967.
Brooke, J. M. S., and Hallen, A. W. C. The Transcript of the Registers of the United Parishes of S. Mary Woolnoth and S. Mary Woolchurch Haw, in the City of London, from their Commencement 1538 to 1760. London: Bowles & Sons, 1886.
Lund Studies in English 55. Lund. (<o:> stands for o-umlaut.)
OED. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. New
Withycombe, E.G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names.