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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for our opinion of <Robert Tyne of Deerbe(u)rn> and <Robert the
Chandler> as a late 13th or early 14th century Scots name. Here is what we
have found.
Scots, the language spoken in the Lowlands of Scotland in this period, was a language closely related to English but not identical. The two languages were related in roughly the same way as modern Norwegian and Swedish: distinct but mostly mutually comprehensible. Scots names were very similar to contemporary English names.
As in English, <Robert> was a common Scots name in the 13th and 14th centuries. Examples abound [1, see for example s.n. Roberton].
We could not find examples of <Tyne> used as a surname. We did find some bynames based on place names that refer to the river Tyne. The modern surname <Tynemouth> was recorded as <de Tinmut> (1209-1233) and <de
Tynemue> (1219-1226) [1]. <Tindale> (1332) was also recorded as <de
Tindal> (1165) and <Tyndall> (1395) [2]. We looked for other river names
used as bynames in your period and found only one possible example: <de
Anand> (1249) derives from a place that may itself have been named for the
river Annan [1]. Given the lack of supporting examples, we suggest that
you either drop this byname or use one of the documented compounds.
We found no Scots place names built from the word <dere>, the Scots equivalent of English <deer>. (The Scots word is also spelled <deir>, <der>, <deyr>, <deire>, and <diere> [3].) We did find an English example, <de Derhurste) (1275), <de Derhirst> (1304) [2], so it is not implausible that the Scots might also have used the word as the basis of place names. They certainly built place names based on animal words, e.g. <de Hertisheued> (1191-1250) meaning "hart's headland" [1].
The element <-burn> was quite common in Scots place names in the 13th and 14th centuries. We find <Triernburn> (c. 1200), <Bradestrothirburne> (c. 1220), <Treburne> (1222), <Kyrkeburne> 1229, and other examples [3]. The most common spelling at this time appears to have been <-burne>. We did not find examples of the spelling <-bern>.
We think that <Dereburne> is a plausible place name for your period. Given the uncertain support for "dere" as a place name element in your period, though, you may choose to use <Hertisburne> or to drop this part of your name altogether.
In the 14th century, most Scots were not yet using inherited surnames. Bynames were still essentially descriptive: <Robert de Dereburne> would have lived at Dereburne. You have chosen two geographical bynames, <Tyne> and <of Deerburn>. We consider this combination to be unlikely for your period. If you held lands in two places, Tindale and Dereburne, you might have used either place name as a byname. You might even have used a different byname in different circumstances, sometimes signing yourself <Robert de Tindale> and sometimes <Robert de Dereburne>. We believe it is unlikely that you would have used both at the same time.
In your period, geographical bynames were recorded both with and without the preposition <de>. In common speech, the preposition was probably <of> when it was used. In formal writing, your name would nearly always have been written in Latin or a partially Latinized form, e.g. <Robertus de Tindale>.
It is not clear whether a Scot of your period would have been called <the
Chandler>. There does not appear to have been a Scots form of that word
[3, 4], although there is record of <John the Candelar> in 1296 and two men
were described as <candelarius> in exchequer rolls for 1329-1330 [1]. It
may simply have been that, unlike in more densely populated Engand cities,
candlemaking had not become a sufficiently specialized occupation in Scots
culture to make <Chandler> a useful distinguishing byname. We should also
consider that candlemaking may have been mainly a woman's occupation, and
thus failed to have made its way into period records. If you choose to use
this byname, we recommend the documented form <the Candelar>.
If you wish to use this documentation to support your name submission to the College of Arms, you can print this letter and include it in your submission. The Lady Laurel Queen of Arms has said that our letters will generally be accepted in lieu of photocopies of the sources that we cite.
I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Effric neyn Kenyeoch.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and
History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986).
[2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995).
[3] Craigie, William and A. J. Aitken, eds., _A Dictionary of the Older
Scottish Tongue from the Twelfth Century to the End of the Seventeenth, founded on the collections of Sir William A. Craigie_, 7 vols., vol. 1
[4] Robinson, Mairi, ed., _The Concise Scots Dictionary_ (Aberdeen:
Aberdeen University Press, 1987).