Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 721

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/721

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked us to suggest names that evoke a scorpion, which you would also like to use in your arms. Here is what we have found.

Choosing a name to match the main charge of your arms is an excellent re-creational technique. Many medieval families design their arms to make a sort of visual pun on their names; this practice was called "canting". You would be doing the same thing by using a scorpion in your arms and choosing a surname which sounds like the word for <scorpion> in some language.

Without knowing where you want to set your persona, it is difficult to suggest appropriate names. However, we can offer a few possibilities. Before we do, we would like to make one point. You wrote that you want to set your persona between the years 850 and 1100. Heraldic arms did not exist in that period. Armory first appeared in northern France in the late 12th century. Any persona earlier than that would not have used arms. You may still choose to use arms; many Societyfolk do. For some thoughts on this problem, you may want to read an article on the web at

http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq/nonheraldic.html

The English word <scorpion> translates to French <scorpion>, Italian <scorpione>, Spanish <escorpión> or <alacran>, and German <Skorpion>. (The slash in the Spanish word represents a sharp accent on the preceding vowel.) We looked for names that sound similar to these words, and found:

• French: <d'Escorbiac>, from a place in Aveyron [4]. Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Frenchmen were commonly identified by the places where they lived. <Pierre d'Escorbiac> would be a fine name for most of the Society's period.
• English: <Scorby>, from a place in the Yorkshire East Riding [5]. From the 11th to the 14th century, a name like <William de Scorby> would be typically English. In later centuries, the name might more likely have been <William Scorby>.
• Italian: <Scorpio> or <Scorpione> [2, 6]. Both names were probably used first as personal nicknames and later as hereditary surnames. You could combine either one with any Italian given name, e.g. <Antonio Scorpione>.
• Spanish: <de Alarcón>, <de Escorc,a>, or <de Escoriaza>, from places in various parts of Spain [7]. (The slash represents an accent on the preceding vowel, and the comma in the second name represents a cedilla on the 'c', indicating that the 'c' is pronounced like \s\). These could have been used in names any time from the Middle Ages onward, such as <Pedro Suarez de Escorc,a>.

If any of these names appeals to you, we'll be happy to suggest sources where you can find appropriate given names. If you'd prefer some other language, let us know and we'll see what we can find.

The scorpion is a fairly rare heraldic charge, but it was occasionally used in our period. Various members of the 15th century English family Cole bore variations on "Argent, a chevron gules between three scorpions sable." There were also families who bore arms containing scorpions in lands that are today Italy, France, and Belgium [2]. Some Italian examples are recorded in the 16th century [3].

There are lots of possibilities for designing arms containing a scorpion. Scorpions are moderately popular in Society heraldry, but not so much so that we can't suggest some very simple designs for you to consider.

Argent, a scorpion azure.
Gules, three scorpions argent.
Argent, three scorpions sable.

Each scorpion is oriented roughly like a capital letter Y with its tail curled to one side. This is the most common posture for a scorpion in period armory.

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 Talan Gwynek and Elsbeth Anne Roth.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur

References

[1] Woodcock, Thomas, Janet Grant, & Ian Graham, _Dictionary of British

Arms_, vol II. (The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1996).

[2] Woodward, John and George Burnett, _A Treatise on Heraldry British and

Foreign_ (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1969).

[3] Neubecker, Ottfried, _Heraldry: Source, Symbols, and Meanings_

(Maidenhead, UK: McGraw-Hill Co., 1976).

[4] Morlet, Marie-Therese, Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de Famille

(Librairie Académique Perrin, 1997).

[5] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames

(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995).

[6] Fucilla, Joseph G., _Our Italian Surnames_ (Evanston, IL: Chandlers'

Inc., 1949).

[7] Bermúdez Plata, Don Cristóbal, _Catálogo de Pasajeros a Indias_

(Sevilla, Spain: Imprenta Editorial de la Gavidia, 1942).