Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 779

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 779

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/779

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked us for help with a Moldavian or Transylvanian name suitable for the 10th century.

The bad news is that none of our members have source material specific to that time and place, and very few records exist from Romania prior to the 12th century [1]. However, the region was dominated by Byzantium from the south, and by Hungary from the west, so it is not unreasonable to choose a name fitting of one of those cultures.

For late Byzantine names, there is an excellent resource available through the SCA on-line at:
"Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the

Late Byzantine Era"
http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/introduction.html This gives many name elements and instructions on how to combine them to form a complete name.

For Hungarian names, we found the following dated to the 14th century [2]. All of these come from names of individuals whose last name indicates they were of non-Hungarian ethnicity. Note that few written records are known from before the 13th century for Hungary, but many of the names given below were also used in Byzantium centuries earlier -- marked by "*":

There are a wealth of last names available in Hungarian, but we found the following that specifically indicate ethnic origin in eastern Europe [2]. These would be usable for someone living in Transylvania of the appropriate ethnic origin:

<Ereman>, <Eremeen>, <Ermen> - Armenian <Kun>, <Kwn> - Cumanian, a Turkish-speaking minority in Hungary <Morva>, <Morway>, <Morvaj> - Moravian <Oroz> - Russian
<Tot>, <Touth>, <Toth>, <Thot> - Slavic <Zerechen> - Arabian, Saracen

The following additional name would be appropriate for a persona from Transylvania, but who no longer lives there:

<Zekul>, <Zekel>, <Zecul> - Hungarian from eastern Transylvania

Should you decide to use the Hungarian suggestions rather than a Byzantine name, simply combine one of the ethnic surnames (last names) with one of the given names above. For SCA registration, you will need to give the surname first, but in period practice either order would have been used.

You may also be interested in the book "Byzantium and Bulgaria: a comparative study across the early medieval frontier" by Robert Browning, published by the University of California Press in 1975. Despite its ominous title, it is a readable book about the history and culture of the eastern Balkans in the 9th and 10th centuries.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

Arval Benicouer and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter.

In service,
--Walraven van Nijmegen
Academy of S. Gabriel


[1] Horia C. Matei et al. "Chronological History of Romania"

Editura Enciclopedica Romana, Bucharest, 1972.

[2] Kázmér Miklós. "Régi Magyar Családnevek Szótára: XIV-XVII Század"

Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, Budapest, 1993.