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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for our opinion of "Sabine Le Fevre D'Orleans" as a 12th century French name. Here's what we've found.
Although we do not have a specific citation of it, the name "Sabine" or "Sabina" was almost certainly in use in 12th century northern France. It is recorded as "Sabina" in England in that period [1, 2], and as "Savina" in France c.800. It is one of the 20 most common names in Essex legal records for the late 12th and 13th centuries. The name of the early Saint Sabina is recorded in various forms: "Sancta Savina" 1071, "Villa Sancte Savine" 1178, "Sancta Sabina" 1248, and "Saincte Savine" 1339 [3]. We believe that the name was in use through your period, and was probably common in Normandy.
The two surnames you've chosen, "le fevre" and "d'Orleans", are both correct for your period. The overall combination is not the most likely possibility for a French woman's name in your period, but it is possible with a couple grammatical and spelling corrections. You should be aware that surnames were not generally hereditary in 12th century; if you were called "le fevre", it would have been because you or your husband was a smith; and if you were called "d'Orleans", it would have been because you were born or lived in Orleans.
The occupational byname "le fevre" is a masculine form. If you intend your persona to be a smith or the wife of a smith, then you probably want to use the feminine form "la fevresse". This form is not recorded in any 12th century documents to which we have access, but we did find several examples of 13th century women who were recorded with similar bynames:
Erembourc l'orfaverresse [4]
Adalaxia Fabressa
Rostagna Fabressa [5]
The first example offers an alternate spelling of the feminine for "goldsmith". The other examples are Latin; the equivalent Old French is "la fevresse" or "la feveresse".
The name of the city of Orleans is recorded in the 12th century as "Orliiens" [3]. We suggest that you use this spelling. The preposition "d'" would not typically have been capitalized in your period.
The use of two surnames, "la fevresse" and "d'Orliiens", is not common in your period. We did find a similar example in a 13th century record, "Lambert le fevre de Saint-Victor" [4], so we feel that the combination "Sabine la fevresse d'Orliiens" is not unreasonable for the 12th century, but single surnames were much more common. Surnames were not permanent in your period: A person would have been referred to in different ways as appropriate to the circumstances. For example, if you were being recorded in a document for the guild of smiths of the city of Orleans, you would probably be recorded in Latin as "Sabina Fabressa". If you travelled to the Champagne Fair to do business, you might be recorded there as "Sabine d'Orliiens". You could use the two surnames interchangably.
One last note: If you intend your persona to be noble, then we recommend dropping the occupational surname "la fevresse". The nobility of your period did not engage in trades, and would not have been known by such a name. "Sabine d'Orliiens" is a perfect name for a French 12th century noblewoman.
I hope this letter has been helpful. Talan Gwynek and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn contributed to this letter.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Talan Gwynek, Feminine Given Names in 'A Dictionary of English
Surnames' (WWW: <URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/reaney/>, 1996)
[2] Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester, "Anglo-Norman Names"
(WWW: http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/anglonorman.html, 1996)
[3] Morlet, Marie-Therese, Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de
l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle, v.II & III (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972)
[4] Colm Dubh, An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris,
Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings (SCA, 1996)
[5] Andre Compan, Etude D'Anthroponymie Provencale: les Noms de Personne
dans le Comte de Nice aux XIIIe, XIVe et XVe Siecles (Paris, 1976)
Correction, 7 Oct 2003, Arval: We originally offered a second period spelling of Orleans, an 11th century spelling Orelians which we found in Dauzat and Rostaing, Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France, s.n. Oreilla. In fact, that spelling was applied to a different place in France.