|
Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked us to suggest a household name containing the word "griffin". Here are our suggestions.
In the Society, a household is any unofficial association of people who have joined together for a common purpose. A household can re-create any kind of historical association, whether it be a nobleman with his family and retainers, or a theatrical troupe, or a laical confraternity. In order for a household name to be authentic, it has to be based on one of the possible historical models for the household itself.
We thought of two possibilities which might interest you. Since you told us that you intend to form a fighting household, we focussed on medieval martial organizations.
One possibility is a private chivalric order. In 14th and 15th century Christian Europe, chivalric orders became a popular part of chivalric and tournament culture. They ranged from the great monarchical orders like the Garter, the Star, and the Golden Fleece, to private tournament companies and votive orders. Monarchical orders were founded by a high nobleman to gather a powerful group of lords sworn to his service, and to increase his prestige by providing him with a personal military unit to follow him in tournament and war. Companions of these orders swore powerful oaths to the monarch and to each other to provide political, military, and economic support against all others.
Tournament companies were formed by groups of lesser noblemen who joined together to sponsor tournaments, to assist one another to participate in tournament, and to support one another in political or personal strife. These companies were self-governing, often electing their leaders, and members swore to accept the company's authority over many disputes.
Votive orders were less formal than other types of chivalric orders. They were often organized for a single year or even a single tournament. The members agreed to pursue a common chivalric goal, often modelled on the extravagant adventures undertaken by the heros of chivalric romances.
All of these types of orders shared a common system of naming, which can be best explained by examples: the Order of the Star, the Order of the Ship, the Order of the Jar, the Order of Saint Anthony, the Order of the Golden Shield, the Confraternity of the Black Swan, the Enterprise of the White Lady with the Green Shield [1]. If you choose to model your household on a chivalric order, then it would be entirely appropriate to call it the "Order of the Griffin".
Note that members of these orders were not necessarily knights, and that membership in an order did not confer knighthood or rank of any kind. The Society's idea that "orders" are rank-bestowing awards is a misconception. There were some late medieval orders which were simply royal awards, but most of the chivalric orders were more like social clubs, fraternal organizations, private armies, or political parties.
If you'd like to learn more about late medieval chivalric orders, then I can recommend two books which discuss the subject: Maurice Keen's "Chivalry" has an excellent chapter on chivalric orders, and D'Arcy Boulton's "Knights of the Crown" is entirely devoted to this subject [1, 2]. The introduction to Boulton's book is a very fine overview of the history of chivalric orders.
In the Society, the word "order" is customarily used only for official awards and the College of Arms has recently chosen to restrict its use only to official awards. Historically, the word was used much more broadly for many types of private association. If you prefer to avoid a collision with custom & College of Arms rules, then you could replace the word "Order" with "Company" or "Confraternity". Those words were also used to describe chivalric orders in our period. (We believe that the College could be convinced to allow a broader use of the word "order"; if you are interested in pursuing that possibility, let us know.)
If you want to register your household name, then you'll need to add a word to this name. There is already a registered household name "Griffin Freehold", which would conflict with "Company of the Griffin". You could avoid any of the conflicts by adding an adjective to your name. For example, "Company of the Black Griffin" appears to be free of conflict and it follows the historical example of the "Confraternity of the Black Swan". However, make sure that you also avoid conflict with these registered Griffin Pursuivant. If you choose a different adjective from any of the ones in these names, you will avoid conflict.
You also told us that you are interested in Celtic culture. The word "Celtic" doesn't actually describe any period culture: In our period, it only refers to a group of languages, like "Romance". We assume that you are interested in Scotland, Wales, or Ireland, but we want to warn you that these are very different cultures in our period. Many Societyfolk make the mistake of assuming that they are interchangable.
Chivalric orders were common throughout Christian Europe. The King of Scotland had his own order, the Order of the Thistle, and knights and squires in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales took part in the same tournaments as their English and French counterparts. So if you would like your household to be a company of knights and squires in 14th or 15th century Ireland, Scotland, or Wales, the name "Company of the Black Griffin" would be an excellent choice.
If you want to set your household in an earlier period, then we have a second suggestion. Before the advent of chivalric orders, military units were essentially the personal followers of noblemen. These warbands weren't really named; they were simply described with the name of the nobleman who led them. "Griffin" is a given name found in England and Wales, a slightly Latinized variant of the Welsh masculine given name "Gruffydd". The name "Gruffydd" itself dates back to the 9th century [Is this correct?]; the form "Griffin" arose in the 12th century [3]. In early medieval Wales, warbands were often described with the word "Teulu". (The same word was used in late medieval Welsh to mean "household, family".) You could think of yourselves as the warband of a nobleman named Griffin, and thus call yourselves "Teulu Griffin" (Griffin's Warband). It would be a bit more likely, judging from historical examples, for the name to include a descriptive byname as well as the given name "Griffin". For example, if the hypothetical Griffin had black hair, he could have been known as "Griffin Ddu" and his warband would be called "Teulu Griffin Ddu" (Black Griffin's Warband). If you want to register your name, then you will definitely have to add some kind of simple descriptive byname to the household name. If you'd like suggestions other than "Black", let us know what you have in mind and we'll help you fit your ideas into the period language.
I hope this letter has been helpful. Tangwystyl ferch Morgant Glasfryn contributed to this letter.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Maurice Keen, "Chivalry" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984).
[2] D'Arcy J. D. Boulton, "The knights of the crown" (New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1987, ISBN 0-312-45842-8).
[3] T. J. Morgan & Prys Morgan, "Welsh Surnames" (Cardiff: University of
Wales Press, 1985).