Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 849

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 849

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/849

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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked about <Celestria Skogan> as a possible English feminine name between 1050 and 1200. Here is what we have found.

We found examples of <Celestria> as an English name in both 1206 and 1221, [1]. Though these dates are slightly out of your period, we feel that the name was probably used before 1200. It is pronounced \seh-LESS-tree-ah\.

<Scogan> we find used as a surname in 1357 [2]. There is also a poem by Chaucer called 'Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan,' written in 1393, the <Scogan> in it probably referring to <Henry Scogan>, who lived circa 1361-1407. [3, 4]

We should point out that the dates we have for the surname are about a hundred years out of your period. At your time, inherited surnames were not used. A woman of your period would probably have been known as her father's daughter <Celestria filia Wilelmi> in Latin or <Celestria Guillem> in English or Anglo-French; as her husband's wife, <Celestria uxor Henrici> in Latin; or by the place where she or her family lived, <Celestria de Beauvy>.

We hope that this letter has been useful to you. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear, or if you have any other questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn.

For the Academy,
Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin


[1] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) .

[2] Bardsley, Charles, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980).

[3] Robinson, F.N. (editor), The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd ed., (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1961)

[4] de Weever, Jacqueline, Chaucer Name Dictionary, (Garland Publishing Inc., New York, 1996)