Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 837

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 837

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/837

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 about the use of the name <Ruth> in English around 1400, and also asked for information about bynames indicating occupation as a shepherd.

While <Ruth> is a Biblical name, and so would have been known in period, our sources say it was not used in England until after the Reformation. The earliest example we could find is a <Ruthe Evans> dated to 1589 [1]. Few Old Testament names were used by Christians before the Reformation; the exceptions are those with some special significance to Christianity, eg. Adam, David, Daniel, Sara, Eve, etc.

For ideas, you might examine the following two sources by Talan Gwynek:

Feminine Given Names in "A Dictionary of English Surnames" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/reaney/

Yorkshire Given Names from 1379
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/yorkshire/

We had considerably more success researching your question about bynames meaning "shepherd" [2]. The following examples incorporate the word "shepherd" itself:

<William Sepherd> 1279
<Henry Shephurde> 1296
<Emma le Schepherde> 1297
<Walter le Shepperde> 1307
<Alice the Schiphird> 1307
<John Shipherde> 1317
<Walter le Sheparde> 1327
<Adam le Shepherd> 1328
Robert le Shephard 1330

There are other terms as well. The name <Barker> may come from an Old French word "berchier", derived from the Latin "bercarius", which means

<Berker> 1185
<le berkier> 1193
<le Bercher> 1212

There are also short forms from the word "herd" or "herder":

<Lehird> temp. Rich. I
<Hord'> 1221
<le Herd> 1243
<le Hurde> 1296
<le Herder> 1327
<Hurder> 1333

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

Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin, Talan Gwynek, Margaret Makafee, and Arval Benicouer contributed to this letter.

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

[1] E.G. Withycombe, _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

[2] P.H. Reaney & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_

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