ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 809 http://www.s-gabriel.org/809 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* From: 17 Apr 1998 Greetings, Here's the advice we can offer about your name "Dyfynnog Odanson," which you wanted to use as a Welsh-Norse name. We want to stress that we don't make judgements about the acceptability of names; instead, we examine whether they're historically plausible. Our advice is not a judgement about whether you can pass your name, just an examination of its historical plausibilty. Unfortunately, there are several reasons that is not a possible medieval name. First, we didn't find as a Welsh name, or even as a word. However, we did find an early saint whose name is recorded in the 13th century as . (1) Although it is not clear whether St. Dyvnawc was a real person, it is at least possible that would be an appropriate name for your period. Some other Welsh names that you might find interesting are (2) * Dafydd * Dyfan * Dyfnwal * Dyfnwallon * Dyfrig You mentioned that meant "fair-haired." does not mean "fair-haired." However, in Welsh and Norse, as in most European languages, given (first) names are not generally chosen based on their meaning. Although given names generally derive from normal words, the meanings of those words is either lost or irrelevant in most cases. "Fair-haired son of Odan" is a description, but it doesn't give you a distinct name. Second, your father's registered name is . Although his name was registered with the SCA, we could find no evidence that either or are Norse names. The closest name we found was , which was used by Scandinavian settlers in England. (3) Finally, we have no evidence of names that combined Norse and Welsh. It is not completely impossible that a Norse man and Welsh women could have married, but there is no sign that children of mixed-culture marriages used names combining elements from each culture. Your persona's name would be based on the language of the area in which he lived. Thus even if you corrected your Welsh first name and your Norse byname, making something like , you would not have a historically accurate name, even though and are plausible on their own. Thus, you should choose name which is either entirely Norse or entirely Welsh. If you want to use a Norse name, you'll need a Norse first name. We found several names that you might find appealing: (4) * Dofnakr * Do/lgfinnr * Dufan * Dufnall You could use any of these with . If you wanted to keep a reference to light hair, you could also use the byname (the is an with an accent), which means "white" (usually in the sense of hair or skin). Combining these would produce a name like . We think that this would be the most likely form your name would take. People in Wales were generally identified as the children of their parents. Thus, if you used as a given name your full name would be follwed by your father's or mother's name. The vast majority (well over 90%) of Welsh people were identified as their father's sons, so the most authentic way to build your name would be to choose a Welsh name for your father and use it in a patronymic byname. Thus, you could find a Welsh name for your father. When a foreigner moved into an area, it was fairly common for the local people to change a foreign name into a name from their own language (this happens in the US--I know an Indian man named "Anand" who is usually called "Andy.") The name is not too different from the common Welsh name , and it is plausible that your father would have gotten called in Wales. Thus, you could use a name like , which would be an appropriate Welsh name for your period. Alternatively, you could use your mother's name, which would be very unusual but would make some sense, given your persona story. Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Lindorm Eriksson, Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin, Daniel de Lincoln, 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) Bartrum, P.C., _Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966). (2) Gruffudd, Heini, _Enwau i'r Cymry/Welsh Personal Names_ (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 1984). (3) Clark, Cecily. Words, Names and History: Selected Papers, ed. Peter Jackson (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995). (4) Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977).