ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 903 http://www.s-gabriel.org/903 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 19 Apr 1998 From: Jaymi Bouziden Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel. You asked for information on the French feminine name . is a variant spelling of an early medieval French feminine name, borrowed into Old French from one or more of the Continental Germanic languages, possibly West Frankish. The first element, or prototheme, of is derived from , which is etymologically related to any number of Germanic words for "spear", including the modern German . The second element, or deuterotheme, is derived from <-SINDIS, -SENDIS>, which has two sources. One is the root of the Gothic and the Old High German , meaning "journey". The other source is the root of Old High German , meaning "strong". The interchange of and in <-SENDIS> and is not uncommon in medieval French, since the two were pronounced identically.. While we couldn't find the exact spelling about which you asked, we did find numerous variants in the early medieval period, including Gersinda 790, c.800, 895 Gersindis 993 Kersinda 826 Kersindis no date Gersendis 941, 1113 Gersenda 971 Gersenta c.800 Girsindis c.800 Jersindis 988-96 Jersendis 10th or 11th century Cherisendis before 1120 (This example shows High German influence in the spelling.) [1] We also found a in the Paris census of 1292 [2], though this may be an unusually late example. It appears to have been a moderately popular name, but it seems to have dropped out of use before the 14th century. We were unable to find any notable historical examples. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any more questions or if any of this letter has been unclear. Elisabeth de Rossignol, Talan Gwynek, and Arval Benicoeur contributed research and commentary for this letter. For the Academy, Livia Montgomery ______________________ [1] Morlet, Marie-There/se\. _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Sie\cle_, vol.1. Paris : Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972. (The slashes indicate accents over the preceding letters.) [2] Dubh, Colm. "An Index to Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris". WWW : SCA, 1997. http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html _______________________