Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 930

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 930

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/930

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on "Birgitta Elisofis Sigtragi Ambjornsdatter," which you wanted to use as a Scandinavian name.

We didn't find all the names you mentioned, although we did find some of them.

<Birgitta> is a fairly common Swedish name which we found from around 1300. (1)

<Elisofis> is a name that we couldn't identify at all. The closest name medieval name we found was <Elisif>. (2)

Although <Sigtragi> is reminiscent of the medieval men's name <Sigtrygg>, (3) we know of no very similar feminine name; the closest that we could find is <Sigrid>. (1)

<Ambjorn> is a worn-down form of <Arnbjo:rn> (the <o:> represents an <o> with two dots over it); the earliest example of this form that we found was from 1415 in the patronymic <Ambiornadottir> 'Ambiorn's daughter'. By the second half of the 15th c. the spelling <datter> can be found; from that time on to the end of our period <Ambiornadatter> would be a plausible spelling. Before that, the correct form would be <Arnbjo:rnadottir>. (2)

The possessive--what would be <Ambiorn's> in English--is indicated with a final <a> in medieval Swedish, and not with a final <s>. The change from <a> to <s> didn't happen until 1600 at the very earliest, so we recommend that you use <Ambjornadottir> or <Ambjornadatter>. (<Ambiorn> and <Ambjorn> are equally acceptable spellings.)

So, we were able to find sources for your first and last names, but not your two middle names. In a way that is convenient, because multiple given names (what we call "middle names") weren't used in Scandinavia until after 1600. This means that to have a historically accurate name, you would have to drop two of the three given names in any case. Since <Birgitta> is your "first name" and also the only one we were able to document, you could use it without any middle names. This would give you the name <Birgitta Ambiornadatter>, which would be a perfectly reasonable Swedish name from 1450 or later. The earlier form <Birgitta Arnbjo:rnadottir> would be appropriate from about 1200 to 1450.

Talan Gwynek, Lindorm Eriksson, Arval Benicoeur, and AElfwyn aet Gyrwum contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Romson, C. "Swedish Feminine Names from ca. 1300." WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 1997.
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/swedish1300female.html

(2) Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn.