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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for our opinion of the name "Celestia Chiara of Oak Lawn". Here's what we've found.
Your name is a mixture of Italian and English. All parts of it are appropriate or almost appropriate to our period, but they are highly unlikely to have been combined into a single name. Mixed language names were quite rare in period. Therefore, we suggest that you choose one of the two languages, and pick a name entirely from that language. We will discuss both English and Italian possibilities.
We were unable to support the use of "Celestia" as a period given name, but we did find some very similar names that are period. There was a 4th C martyred bishop St. Celeste, a virgin martyr St. Celestina, and several popes named Celestino, one of them in the late 13th century. In modern times, the names "Celesta" and "Celestina" are found in northern Italy [1]. We are confident that these names were in use in Italy, at least occasionally, throughout our period.
We found various forms of the name "Celesta" in other languages in period, but we did not find "Celestia". The "-ia" ending is not likely to have derived from any of the forms that I have discussed. That form would have to derive from a Latin name "Caelestius"; but in fact the Latin root of all these names is "Caelestis". The grammatical difference between these two spellings is significant; it is much more than a simple spelling variation.
We did find the name "Celestria" in use in England in the early 13th century [2]. You could use that name as part of an English name, but it wouldn't be as appropriate for an Italian persona.
"Chiara" is a late medieval Italian form of "Clara". It is certainly a period name, appropriate to most of Italy from the late 14th century onward [1]. We have found no evidence that it was used in England in period; the English equivalents are "Clare" or "Clara" [3].
Double given names (or middle names) are rare in period Europe. They were found in Italy from the Renaissance onward and in England at the very end of our period, but they did not become commonplace in either country until after our period. A double given name like "Celestina Chiara" would be plausible for a late-period Italian persona. However, most people in period Italy had only one given name.
The place name "Oak Lawn" could not have existed in our period. The word "lawn" entered the English language in the late 16th century as a variant of the older "laund", which meant "a glade, a clearing in the woods" [4]. "Lawn" was not used in English place names for about another century [5]. We think it is reasonable to construct a place name with the same meaning and almost the same sound from Middle English roots: "Oklande" or "Okelaund". These spellings are appropriate for 13th or 14th century English.
How you put these elements together depends on when and where you want to set your persona. If you want an Italian name from before 1400, then we suggest a single given name and a single surname, either patronymic (naming your father) or locative (naming the place where you live). For example: "Celestina Sebastiani" or "Celesta della Monte". If you want a later-period Italian name, you could use the same type of name or you could add the second given name: "Celestina Chiara da Padua".
If you want a 13th century English name, you would want to use a single given name and you could use a locative surname, e.g. "Celestria de Oklaunde".
There are lots of other possibilities, of course, but these are the ones closest to your original idea. If you would like to consider other possibilities, let us know what you have in mind and we'll be happy to help.
I hope this letter has been helpful. Talan Gwynek and Evan da Collaureo contributed to this letter.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Emidio De Felice, Dizionario dei Nomi Italiani (Milano: Arnoldo
Mondadori, 1986).
[2] Talan Gwynek, Feminine Given Names in 'A Dictionary of English
Surnames' (KWHS 1994 & WWW http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/ 1997)
[3] Withycombe, E.G., The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 3rd
ed. (Oxford University Press)
[4] Oxford English Dictionary, entry "lawn"
[5] P. H. Reaney & R. M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames (Oxford
University Press, 1995)