ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 889 http://www.s-gabriel.org/889 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 19 Jun 1998 From: Jodi McMaster Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked about the name "Jacomus van de Pontseele" as a masculine Flemish name circa 1320. You indicated that the byname was a family name, that of a Flemish great-grandmother. We understand you are submitting this request for a client who does not have access to email. Thank you for assisting him in this correspondence and delivering this letter to him. Instead of trying to distinguish between you and the client, we've just used "you" for both herein. "Flemish" as a language is identical to Dutch; the distinction between them is modern and political. In your period, the modern Flemish- speaking areas were inhabited by people who spoke both Dutch and French. In period, the word "Flemish" meant "of the County of Flanders", which today is a province in Belgium. While this County was influential, it did not have its own language and culture distinct from Namur, Artois, Brabant or other neighboring provinces. For these reasons, as well as the fact that names and spellings of places and families were still somewhat fluid until after the middle ages, a family name, even one a few generations back, may not have existed in the same form in period as it did 100 years ago. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate your chosen given name "Jacomus" (a form of "James") in your desired period and location. We did find the French form "Jacques" in Bruges in your period, as well as "Jacob," "Jakob" and "Jaques." [1] We also found the Dutch form "Jakeme." [3] We also did not find "Pontseele" as a name in your period. The closest name we found was "du Pondt," [1] which appears to be a Dutch-influenced spelling of "pont," the French word for bridge. Your great-grandmother's name, "Pontseele," is still in use in the Netherlands; we were able to find it in various modern lists. Although the great-grandmother's name is indicative that some form of it arose at some point in the past, we can only speculate on the time and source of its origin. For example, when Napoleon's people came through and made everyone take a surname, many Dutch took the whole thing as a joke and made up names (that they often later forgot). If you would like a similar sounding name, we can suggest the plausible French construction of "Pontsaille." Many French placenames were constructed by using "Pont-" (meaning "bridge") with the name of a town. [4] We found on a period map a notation of a town in Artois, part of the French-speaking low countries (now in northern France) which was called "Saille." [2] Putting these elements together, you could arrive at "Pontsaille." Therefore, possible names for the place and time you have chosen are the Dutch "Jakeme du Pondt" (although technically this is a Netherlandish given name combined with a Dutch spelling of a French byname) or the French "Jacques de Pontsaille." We hope this letter has been helpful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Arval Benicoeur, Walraven van Nijmegen, Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin, Daniel de Lincolia, Teceangl Bach, Lindorm Eriksson, Zenobia Naphtali, Elisabeth de Rossignol, Margaret Makafee, and Talan Gwynek contributed comments and/or research for this letter. For the Academy, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum __________________ References: [1] Luana de Grood (Loveday Toddekyn), _Flemish Names from Bruges_ (WWW: Academy of St. Gabriel 1996) at: http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/bruges/ [2] Johannes Blaeu, _Blaeu's "The Grand Atlas" of the 17th-Century World_ (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, partial reprint 1991). [3] Beele, Wilfried, _Studie van de Ieperse Persoonsnamen uit de Stads- en Baljuwsrekeningen 1250-1400_ (Handzame, 1975) #1178. [4] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963).