ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 897 http://www.s-gabriel.org/897 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* From: "Lisa Mohr" 1 Jun 1998 Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel-- You asked whether the name would be appropriate to use in the period following the Norman conquest of England. Here is what we have found. Our research has not turned up any examples of the name with this spelling. However, in your letter you mentioned as an alternative form, and here we have had greater success. We have found an example of in northwestern France in the 13th century (1), which is after the period of the Norman Conquest but within the time range you designated in your letter (12th to 14th century). It appears to be a form of or , which are short forms of or (1,2). The name is found in use in England (3), and there are many examples of names ending in <-on> used by Anglo-Normans, including , , , and (3,4). The ending <-on> was used as a diminutive suffix and also was used to show a name's grammatical case. Whatever the origin of , our source clearly shows it in use as an independent name in northwestern France. Although we cannot document the name in England, we feel the evidence makes it reasonable that it could have been used there. We hope this has been of help to you. Please let us know if you have any questions or if we can be of further assistance. Research and comment for this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur and Teceangl Bach. For the Academy, Elisabeth de Rossignol _____________________ (1) Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). (2) Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972), I:64b. (3) Nicolaa de Bracton, "A Statistical Survey of Given Names in Essex Co., England, 1182-1272", Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings 1995 (SCA Inc.) (4) Withycombe, E.G. _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).