ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 991 http://www.s-gabriel.org/991 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 26 May 1998 From: Joshua Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about the name , which you hope to use as a French feminine name. Here is what we have found. We were unable to find as a French personal name. We did find it as a place name. The name of the town of is recorded as around the year 1250 [1]. We did find some fairly similar early-medieval personal names. We find the name or recorded from the 8th to the 11th centuries. The masculine form of the same name, , appears in around 800 as [2]. These examples establish a good argument that is a plausible name for the same period. But we don't find any spelling of this name with a double , so we recommend against . We also found the name in use in about the same period [2]. If you want an early medieval Frankish persona, then or is a reasonable first name. In this period, people used only a single name, so it would be most authentic for you to use no surname at all. If you want to register this name, you'll need some kind of surname; the best choice would be a byname that identifies your father. Written documents in this period were uniformly in Latin, so the best written forms of your name would be something like "Elia, daughter of Johanes". But in everyday speech, you would have been known by your first name alone. If you want a later-medieval persona, then you might want to use the place name in your name. A name like would be a good choice for a 13th century persona. That name would have been written in Latin as . 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 Margaret M'Fee, AElfwyn ate Gyrwum, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Giulietta da Venezia. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 26 May 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963), s.n. Illac. [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:32b; v.II s.nn. Elia, Elius. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -