ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 899 http://www.s-gabriel.org/899 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 11 Apr 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our help establishing that the name is a correct name for a 6th century Gothic woman living in Byzantium. Here is what we have found. Before I start, I'd like to clarify the service that the Academy offers. We try to help Societyfolk in choosing and using names that fit the historical cultures they are trying to re-create. Our research can sometimes be used to support submissions to the College of Arms, but that it not our goal and our results are often incompatible with the College's needs. If your main goal is to register a particular name, then we may not be able to help you. We checked the history of your submission to the College, and we found a few important details. The College suggested the Latin for your byname for two reasons. First, the language of your byname had to match the language of your given name. Since is a Latin form of that originally Greek name, a Latin byname was required. Second, it concluded that the pattern of usage of ethnic bynames in Roman society made it highly unlikely that a byname would have been formed from the genitive plural form , but rather from the feminine form of the nominative singular. Hence [2]. This second conclusion may have been incorrect: Your submission reached the College without any indication that your persona was Byzantine, and they assumed a Latin context. The equivalent Gothic form (feminine nominative singular) is [3]. In your period, women in the Byzantine aristocracy were most often described by a single given name, without any byname (just as in Gothic culture). So it would be perfectly authentic for your persona to be called simply . When women needed to be distinguished further, they were described as their father's daughters or their husband's wives. For example, "Helena daughter of Artavasdos", "daughter of Ingerinos", , widow of a nobleman named . These examples are taken from seals, so are probably the best evidence available of what these women called themselves [4, 5]. We found a little specific information about the naming practices of foreign women who married into the Byzantine aristocracy. These examples are from the imperial family and are much later in history than your period, but they are the best information we have available. Foreign empresses received a Greek name upon their arrival in Constantinople. The daughter of the Khagan of the Khazars who married Constantine V took the name Irene. The Comnenes who married Christian princesses who were born within the Empire but whose names had no Byzantine equivalents gave their brides the given names of their own mothers. John II, son of Alexis and Irene Doukaina, took as wife Piroshka of Hungary who became Irene. Manuel, his son, followed the same practice in rebaptizing Berthe of Sulzbach as Irene. These empresses are never surnamed Comnene in inscriptions where they are named. ... Yolande de Montferrat, wife of Andronicos II, sealed under the name of Irene Comnene, Doukas, and Paleologos, and Jeanne de Savoie, wife of Andronicos III, under the name of Anne Paleologos [5, p.288, translation mine]. Family names like the ones mentioned in this paragraph did not exist in Byzantine society in your period; they began to appear in the 8th century and did not become generally popular until the 10th century. From the 8th century, there were family names based on ethnic terms, like "the Mespotamians" and "the people of Charsianos" [5]. It is quite likely that less formal bynames of this type were used by Byzantine men two centuries earlier. But note that these are Greek bynames, even when the nation named did not speak Greek, and that we have no evidence of Byzantine women using any kind of byname except one's that identified their relationship to father or husband. Our conclusion is that a foreign woman who married into Byzantine society would have adopted a Byzantine name, without any reference to her own family. Her children would have been known as their father's children. Since you've already decided to use a Greek given name instead of a Gothic name, it seems that you've already decided to romanize your persona; it seems inconsistent with the historical evidence to go only part way. If you want to stretch the evidence to cover a 6th century woman using an ethnic byname, then you should use a Greek form of the name. Unfortunately, we do not know the 6th century Greek word for "of the Goths". If your name had been written, it could have been recorded in the Roman or Greek alphabet. In Greek, the name is written alpha, nu, alpha, sigma, tau, alpha, sigma, iota, alpha. The first letter has a hook over it shaped like a comma; this indicates that the initial letter is pronounced \a\ rather than \ha\. The name is best transliterated as <'Anastasia>. You also asked for the appropriate form of for your persona. We do not know the answer to that question. There may not be an answer, since there may not be any reasonable equivalent of that rank in 6th century Byzantine or Gothic society. The College of Arms' Greek equivalent of is [1], but we strongly doubt that title was taken from any time near your period. The ^ should be over the , and indicates that the Greek letter here is an omega rather than an omicron. 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, and Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Equivalent titles table on the SCA website. [2] Laurel Letter of Acceptances and Returns, February 1997. [3] Wright, Joseph, _Grammar of the Gothic Language_ (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1975). [4] Bourin, Monique, Jean-Marie-Martin, and Francois Menant, eds., _L'Anthroponymie: Document de l'Histoire Sociale des Mondes Me/diterrane/ens Me/die/vaux_, Collection de l'E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 226 (Rome: E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 1996), pp.267-294. [5] Cheynet, Jean-Claude, "L'Anthroponymie Aristocratique a\ Byzance" in Monique Bourin, et. al., op. cit. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -