ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1394 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1394 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 31 Jan 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if the masculine name would have been used by an Englishman in period. You also asked about the arms "Per pale sable and vert, an eagle striking argent and a chief checky vert and argent." Here is the information we have found. was introduced to England in the 12th century, where it was spelled and used only occasionally. It wasn't until the 16th century that it became fairly popular. [1,2] The surname was originally a locative byname (a nickname identifying a person's place of residence). Around the 13th century, the surname still had the preposition in it, e.g. 1251. [3] In the 14th century, we find 1369-70, and 1372. [4] The spelling is found in the early 16th century. [5] Based on these dates, we feel that is an excellent name for the 16th century. If you would like an earlier persona, would be appropriate for the 12th or 13th century. Your arms are a bit more problematic, for reasons which we will detail below. To begin, we have not found any period examples of an eagle or a falcon striking. There is, however, a similar posture that was used: rising. (An example of a bird rising can be seen in the US Postal Service insignia). It was also rare for a field divided of two dark colors to have a light-colored charge over the line of division. In the examples that we've seen, most of the time one of the colors was red, which is fairly different from any other color. Two colors such as green and black, on the other hand, could be confused with each other from a distance. You might consider using a field of a single tincture instead of a divided field. Something like "Sable, an eagle rising and a chief chequy argent and vert" would be a fine choice for your period. You'll note that we did not recommend you make the chief checky argent and sable; though checky chiefs were used earlier in period, if rarely, we found only one example where the chief shared the tincture of the field. We recommend that you avoid this. [4,5,6,7] We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, Zenobia Naphtali, Arval Benicoeur, Rouland Carre, Evan de Collaureo, Jaelle of Armida, and Margaret Makafee. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael January 31, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). [2] Talan Gwynek, "Late Sixteenth Century English Given Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) . [3] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.n. Redmore [4] Woodcock, T., Janet Grant, & Ian Graham, eds. Dictionary of British Arms. Medieval Ordinary. Volume Two (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1996). 384;141, p.213 [5] Chesshyre, Hubert & Woodcock, Thomas, _Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary_, vol. I (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1992). p. 386, pp. 155, 406, 487 [6] Brault, Gerald J., _The Rolls of Arms of Edward I_, Aspilogia III, 2 vols. (London: Boydell Press, 1997). s.n. Robert du Hausted [7] Papworth, John W., _Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials_, reprint (Five Barrows Ltd., 1977). pp. 554-560