ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 693
http://www.s-gabriel.org/693
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* NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports     *
*       contain errors that we haven't yet      *
*       corrected.  Please use it with caution. *
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1 Mar 1998

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel,

You asked us about women's names appropriate to Bruges in 1470, in
particular about names that are neither Biblical nor Germanic in origin.

Most names for your place and period are Biblical or Germanic. Of the
remaining names, almost all the rest are of Greek or Latin origin, and
often are the names of popular saints.

There is an on-line collection of Bruges name data [1]; this is a list of
guild members from 1400 to 1600. There are only a few feminine names on
that list, but we have collected these together. We also found a list of
feminine given names from southern Holland in 1376 [2], and have included
these as well. We have marked each name to indicate its likely origin:
+ Biblical; * Germanic; $ Saint or christian devotional name; L-Latin, but
not obviously Christian, ? uncertain

$ Adriana
$ Aghata, Aechte
$ Agnes, Neeskina, Neysel
* Aleydis, Aleyd, Aelent
* Alvara
+ Anna
$ Beatrix
* Bessela
$ Cathe/rine, Katherina, Katharina, Katheline, Kathelyne
$ Celye
$ Christina, Cristina, Stina, Styenken
$ Clara
L Delye (Delyanna)
* Dyerwijf
* Eefsa, Eefssa
+ Elisabeth, Elysabeth, Lysa, Lijsbet, Lysbette, Lysbet, Lysbeth, Lijske
? Enggela
* Ermgard
+ Eva
L Floris
* Gheerburgis
* Gertruda, Gertrudis, Gheertrudis, Truda, Trude
* Hadewigis
* Heylwigis, Heylwiga
* Hylla, Hilla, Hyldegondis
* Yda, Ida
$* Johanna
* Jutta
L Lucia
* Lumoedis
* Luta
+ Magdalena, Magdalene
$ Margreta, Margareta, Margarita, Met
+ Maria, Marie
* Mechtildis, Mechteld
* Merswindis
* Nenneken
* Oede
$ Pauweline.
+ Salome, Saleme, Salomea
$ Sophia
? Zensa
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We hope this will help you get started. If you are interested in a
complete authentic name, you will need also to select a byname, a second
name element that describes which Elizabeth or which Hylla you are. For
the time and place of your interest, the most likely forms this would take
are [2]:

(1) relational -- "daughter of {x}", "mother of {x}", "wife of {x}",
and there are examples of "widow" or "sister".
(2) locative (where you live or come from). In Bruges, these could
be constructed as "de {place name}" or "van {place}"
(3) occupational (though this is more likely for a man than a woman)
(4) descriptive -- "the tall", "the dirty", etc. This seems to be
less common than the other categories.

If you need specific information, we can provide that for you. You can
certainly find many Bruges surnames from the on-line source we mentioned
[1].
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We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
--Walraven van Nijmegen
Academy of S. Gabriel
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[1] Luana de Grood (Loveday Toddekyn). "Flemish Names from Bruges"
http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/bruges/
March 1996

[2] G. M. Van der Velden. "Het Oudste Cijnregister van de Abdij van
Berne uit 1376". 's-Hertogenbosch, 1982.
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