Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 533

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 533

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/533

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 have about your proposed name, "Cassandra Celeste" and on how to form a "married name."

What you're trying to do makes sense from a modern perspective, but medieval "naming rules" were quite different.

First of all, it appears that you're using "Cassandra" as a first name and "Celeste" as a second name. Middle names (including double given names and confimration names) were virtually unknown in period English--out of the millions of people in England, we know of only four non-royal people who had middle names. For historical accuracy you should use only one given name.

"Cassandra" was used in England as early as the 12th century (1) and we have an example from the 16th century as well. (2) However, we have no examples of "Celeste" in English at any point in period. Thus, we recommend that you drop "Celeste" and use just "Cassandra."

How you deal with a "married name" depends on what country and what period you're living in. We'll describe the English possiblities first, and then the Italian.

The traditional English pattern of married names, where a woman takes the surname of her husband, wasn't a universal rule in the Middle Ages. Before about 1400, most people didn't even have surnames--they were given "bynames" which varied according to the situation. A miller in the village of Aylington might be called "John Miller" in his hometown, but when he traveled to London he could be called "John de Aylington." Since there was no concept of a "family name," there was no reason for him to share a name with his wife or children.

Even when family names became more common in the 1400's, there was still no hard and fast rule. Some women took their husband's family name, while others kept their original name. In some cases, the husband took the wife's name! However, women commonly took their husband's name in the 1300's, after about 1400 it was normal for a woman to use her husband's byname.

In England, the whole issue is further complicated by your husband's Italian name. In period English there are a variety of ways in which foreign names were handled, but for simplicity's sake we'll assume that his name would be translated into its English equivalent, "James Florence." It was common for people to translate foreign names in this way, so that's a reasonable assumption.

You could take your husband's name, choose a name of your own, or have your husband take your name. Taking your husband's name would make you "Cassandra Florence." You could be known as "Cassandra James." You could even pick an English name of your own (as an example, "Taylor") and be known as "Cassandra Taylor." Husbands didn't often take their wives' name, but since your husband is a foreigner it's conceivable that he would be identified by your name, and be called "James Taylor" in England (you wouldn't have to register this name!) As you can see, there are plenty of possiblities.

We don't have as much information about Italian names. Inherited family names were used by some families but not all. So, you could be "Cassandra da Firenze." Another common practice was for all the people in the family to be associated with the head of the family. In this case, you would be known as "Cassandra Giacomi" (literally "Giacomo's Cassandra.")

Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Rouland Carre, Daniel de Lincoln, Evan de Collaureo, Walraven van Nijmege, Pedro de Alcazar, Charles O'Connor, Herveus d'Ormonde, Elsbeth Anne Roth, and Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn 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) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/reaney/

(2) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/eng16/