ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 902 http://www.s-gabriel.org/902 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * 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: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about 13th century Spanish women's names, particularly Jewish names, and asked whether would be an appropriate name. Here is what we have found. The common modern form of Spanish names, y , is a purely modern usage. The roots of this style of naming can be found among the higher nobility as early as the late 15th century, with forms like de y , and among a slightly broader segment of society in the last quarter of the 16th century; but it did not become general practice until well after our period. Most period names -- and all names in your period -- were much simpler. According to our best information about names in your period, surnames began to become fixed and inherited in the 14th century in at least some parts of Spain; but most were still descriptive and variable. In 13th century Castille, most people were known by a given name alone or by a given name plus a patronymic byname (a descriptive surname that identified the person's father). Many people were described with locative bynames (ones that name the place where they lived or were born) and a few used two bynames or other kinds of bynames. Women's names tended to be even simpler than men's names. A woman was most often recorded by her given name alone, or by given name plus a patronymic. We have found a few examples of locatives and one 12th century example of a woman using a patronymic and a locative [1]. Naming practices varied from one part of Spain to another. We have focussed on Castillian naming because it is typical of most of Christian Spain in your period. If you are interested in placing your persona in another part of Spain, let us know and we may be able to give you more information. The given name was in use in your period. It appears as early as 950 and was a common name in Castille from 1000 to 1200 [2]. We don't actually have any 13th century examples, but since it is also recorded in the 16th century [3], we believe that it must have persisted through the period. We could not find any Spanish surname based on the word "harp". We're guessing that you intended to mean "of the Harp", i.e. "the harper". We don't find anything comparable in medieval Spanish. Occupational bynames may have existed in your period, but we haven't found any examples of names based on types of musical instruments. We recommend that you not use this name. The most typical style of surname from your period is a patronymic. If your father's name were , for example, you could be called or . Either name would have been understood to mean "Juliana, daughter of Gonzalo". Alternatively, you could use a locative like "Juliana of Moguer". Surnames were not fixed in your period, so you might choose a patronymic and a locative, and use them interchangably. But most often in your period, you would have been known simply as . If you want a Jewish persona, then there are two questions you might want to answer: Is a likely name for a 13th century Spanish Jew? How were 13th century Spanish Jewish names constructed? Unfortunately, we do not have enough data to give a clear answer to either question. We are not aware of any published work on medieval Spanish Jewish names, but one of our members has collected a list of Jewish names from medieval Spanish sources. It is attached as an appendix to this letter. We did not find used by Spanish Jews in period, nor by Jews in other countries. In the medieval Iberian-Jewish names we have studied, we find that Jews used traditional Old Testament names, though these were often recorded in different forms in Iberian languages or in Latin [1]. In some others countries, Jews frequently adopted names popular in the surrounding Christian communities [4, 5], but this appears not to be the pattern in Iberia. Therefore, we do not recommend as a name for an Iberian-Jewish persona. Based on the examples from Spain, France, and England, we believe that a Jewish woman of your period would usually have been known simply by her given name. If more identification were needed, she would most likely have been known as her father's daughter. In Spanish, this name would take one of the forms that we discussed above, a given name and a patronymic. In the Jewish community, she would probably have been known in Hebrew as her father's daughter, such as . For more information on Iberian names and cultures in your period, you may want to read the _Cro/nica General_ (General History) of Alonso el Sabio, particularly the section on his reign. It was the first systematic history of Spain, and we believe it has been published in English translation. 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, Pedro de Alcazar, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Esther Mendes, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 19 June 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Menedez-Pidal, Ramon, _Crestomati'a del Espan~ol Medieval_ (Madrid: 1971). [2] Sopena, Pascual Marti/nez, _Antroponimia y Sociedad_: Sistemas de identificacio/n hispano-cristianos en los siglos IX a XIII_, Historie y Sociedad no. 46 (Valladolid, Spain: Universiade de Santiago de Compostela and Universidad de Valladolid, 1995), data found in the following articles: Garcia de Corta/zar, Jose/ Garcia, Carmen Di/ez Herrera, and Esther Pen~a Bocos, "Antroponimia de Burgos y su alfoz en los siglos X al X11", pp.231-257. Garcia de Corta/zar, Jose/ Garcia, Carmen Di/ez Herrera, and Esther Pen~a Bocos, "Antroponimia y sociedad del Canta/brico al Ebro en los siglos IX a X11", pp.205-230. Valenti/n, Julia Montenegro, "Antroponimia lebaniega en los siglos IX a X11", pp.181-203. [3] Elsbeth Anne Roth, _16th-century Spanish Women's Names_ (WWW: Self-published, 1998). http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kvs/fnames.html [4] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama, WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). The web version of the article contains a separate list of Jewish names. http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html#jewish [5] Eleazar ha-Levi, "Jewish Naming Convention in Angevin England" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/jewish.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Medieval Spanish Jewish Names Compiled by Juliana de Luna, copyright Juliana de Luna (Julia Smith), 1998. Notes by Arval Benicoeur. Names marked + are feminine, and names marked ? are ones which are not explicitly identified as Jews in the source, but which appear to be Jewish from form and context. represents a c-cedilla, which is pronounced as an \s\. Most of these names are men's names, as in most period sources, but the list will give a general picture of how Jewish names were put together. As you'll notice, most of these people are identified only by a given name. Some are given patronymic bynames (e.g. , ) which are probably either transliterations or translations of Hebrew names like . (The form is also common in contemporary Spanish names.) A few have locative bynames (e.g. "the Liebanan", ). One man is bynamed , the Jewish priestly caste, and others are identified by a family relationship. Many of the given names are Spanish equivalents of Hebrew names: for , for or , for . Some may be actual translations of the original Hebrew meanings of names, or allegorical references. For example, may be a rendering of , since the lion was the symbol of the biblical tribe of Judah. may represent some form of , which means "life" in Hebrew. Other names may have been adopted from the surrounding Christian or Muslim societies. In Castilla, 1219: + Oro Sol Iuc Lebanaza Iuceph de Lebanza ? Iuceph Milano Zac ? Juceph el guer ? Guerson ? Semuel ? Micael In Navarra, 1350: Samuel Empesat Judas Aboc,ach (ab As,ach = son of Isaac) Abram, su hermano (his brother) Ac,ach, su fijo (his son, is another rendition of ) Menahem Laredi Vivfilli et Juda, su fijo (his sons) C,ac,on (another version of , a diminutive form) Saul + Fermosa et Orc,eti, su fija (his daughters) Mosse de Samanigo Ac,ach de Samaynigo Jamilla Mosse, fijo de C,adia (son of C,adia) Seynnor Hayn Abran, fijo de Salamon (son of Salamon) Essua Cach Medelin (another form of ) Saloru et su fija (and his daughter) C,ach Maesto Escachiza (Probably combined with some byname) Samuel Levi In Navarra, 1366: Juce, fijo de Acac, Cardeniel (son of Isaac Cardeniel) Juda Cardeniel, su hermano (his brother) Leon de Paris (of Paris) Abraam de Niort Samuel de Nabort Ac,ac de Manua Ac,ac d'Escapa C,ac,on, fijo de Jacob Cardeniel (son of Jacob Cardeniel) C,ac,on Farach Abraam Rabic,a Juce Govon Juda Amatu Aym Alaman Aya Almanquas Mosse Amatu C,ac,on Ac,aya Abraam, fijo de Rabi Ac,ac (son of Rabbi Ac,ac = Isaac) Juda Maquarel Samuel Bonisac Juda, fijo de Juce Cardeniel (son of Joseph Cardeniel) Samuel Abroz C,ulema de Sos (Zulema is a Moslem masculine name) C,ulema el Franco (the Frank = Frenchman) Salamon de Tones Ac,ac Binach Sources: Menedez-Pidal, Ramon, _Crestomati'a del Espan~ol Medieval_ (Madrid: 1971). Carrasco Pe'rez, _La Poblacio'n de Navarra en el Siglo XIV_, Pamplona: University of Navarra, 1973.