ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1576 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1576 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 30 May 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know the if French feminine name , meaning "Alexine of the cats," would have been used between 900 and 1600. Here is the information we have found. appears to be a modern feminine form of , which is found in France in 1292 as . [1] While we did not find any feminine forms of , we believe that, based on other patterns we have seen, either or would be reasonable feminine forms. We also found a few similar names that you might be interested in [1,3,4,5,6]: Adelix 1097 Aaliz 1130-50 Aliz 1154-1189 Aelis 1197 Aeliz 1259 Alix 1279 Aaline 1292 Ailexate 1267-98 Ailixate 1267-98 Ailxate 1267-98 Ailexon 1267-98 Ailixon 1267-98 Alexon 1267-98 Ailixons 1267-98 Alixon 1267-98 In these names, the was not pronounced as it is in modern English; rather it was pronounced as \s\ or perhaps \ts\. The correct French phrase meaning "of the cats" is . However, we have no evidence that the French used nicknames such as this. We did find, though, a few bynames that are similar in meaning or sound [2,3]: la Chatte, "the (female) cat" Chatard, derived from "chestnut brown" du Chatel, "of the castle" A name such as would be a fine French feminine name for the middle of your period. 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, Blaise de Cormeilles, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael May 30, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1] 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) [URL:http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html]. [2] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987). [3] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.n. Alis [5] Villehardouin, Geoffroy, _La Conque^te de Constantinople_, ed. & trans. Edmond Faral (Paris: Socie/te/ d'E/dition Les Belles Lettres, 1961). [6] Jacobsson, Harry, _E/tudes d'Anthroponymie Lorraine les Bans de Tre/fonds de Metz (1267-1298)_ (Go:teborg: Gumperts Fo:rlag, 1955)