ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 888 http://www.s-gabriel.org/888 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* From: Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our opinion of , which you want to use as a 13th century English name. You also asked our opinion of your design for your arms. Here is what we have found. The name derives from two separate sources. It arose in Italy from the Roman family name , which also produced the French literary name . (The slash represents an accent on the previous letter.) In England, it was probably a pet-form of , which had been in use in England from the 12th century. The first recorded English instance of is Shakespeare's character in "As You Like It" [1]. Shakespeare is known to have invented other names, so this may be the true origin of the English name. We therefore recommend against using as a 13th century name. There are a couple alternatives that you might consider. As I noted above, was a common name in your period. We found the following spellings in your period [2]: 1296; 1303; 1202, 1254, 1297, etc.; 1210, 1273, 1346, 1246, 1281. You might also be interested in the name , which sounds similar to . It is an unrelated name, derived from the Old English word "happy, blessed", and is recorded in your period [3]: Sela (1219, Lincolnshire) Sely filia Nicholai (1221, Worchestershire) Sely Percy (1327, Somersetshire). We can't find evidence that was used as a byname or surname in your period. However, we think it is a reasonable construction, though perhaps not with the meaning you intend. We did not find any example of used in a byname to describe a particular archer's bow, but we did find it used in quite a number of place names. The Middle English word or meant "arch, vault" and was often used to refer to an arched bridge or to a bend in a river. We find the bynames and "at the bridge" recorded in 1298 and 1304 [3]. A bridge made of red stone might well be described by color, so we see no problem with the byname "at the red bridge". Alternatively, the same name might have arisen from a word meaning "reed" and thus could have been meant "at the bend in the river where the reeds grow". The spelling would be entirely unremarkable later in period, though it is not a likely form for the 13th century. or would be fine names for your period. We did find some period names built from the word with the meaning . and are recorded in 1279 and 1286; the byname means "archer". and appear in 1275 and 1296; their names mean "bowyer, bowmaker" [3]. We have found some examples of bynames that described a particular colored article of clothing [4]: Whithode "white hood" 1316 Whytebrok "white breech or trousers" 1338 Blakmantel "black cloak" 1324 Blaunchcote "white coat" 1294 Redehose "red hose" 1332 Redesleue "red sleeve" 1357 We only found one example referring to anything other than clothing: 1379, possibly meaning "red coin" [4]. This is very weak evidence for constructing the analogous , and we do not recommend that you use this byname with the meaning "red (long)bow". The arms you described are very complicated. Your description wasn't complete -- you didn't tell us where the passion nails go -- but we would blazon it something like "Per pale vert and argent, in fess a crown Or and a longbow, all between four passion nails gules." This design is much too complex for your period: 13th century arms were very simple, with only one or two different objects in the design and usually only two tinctures. The designs tended to have strong visual symmetry, with identical charges placed in balancing positions. As far as we know, longbows were not used in heraldry of your period. In general, choosing the tool of your favorite Society activity as a charge is not a good path to take if you want to design historically accurate arms. We recommend that you take the opportunity to look at examples of arms from your period so that you can get an idea of the sorts of designs that were used in medieval England. An excellent book for this purpose is Joseph Foster, _The Dictionary of Heraldry_ (New York: Arch Cape Press, 1989). It contains several thousand color pictures of period English arms. Finally, we want to point out that in the Society, a crown is customarily used in arms only by former royalty. If you have not been a queen or princess in the Society, you should not use a crown and you cannot register arms containing one. We also avoid designs with a field divided vertically with a different charge in each half of the field. These designs appear to be "impaled arms", i.e. arms composed by taking two separate sets of arms and joining them together on the two halves of the field. Impalement was used at some times in period to indicate the marriage of two families that bore arms. As such, it is considered by Society custom and College of Arms rules to be an implicit claim to rank, and should therefore be avoided. 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, Lindorm Eriksson, and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). [2] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/reaney/. [3] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). [4] Jo:nsjo:, Jan, _Studies on Middle English Nicknames_, v.1 Compounds (CWK Gleerup, date unknown). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -