ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2285 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2285 ************************************ From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 30 Apr 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked if is an appropriate name for a man living in England between 1350 and 1450. You also asked our opinion of arms which you described as, "Per chevron argent and azure, a lion rampant or, langued and armed gules in base, two fleurs-de-lys sable." Here is the information we have found. is a form of ; it was extremely popular in England [1, 2]. We have examples of this spelling throughout your period; it is a fine choice. Your byname is also a fine choice, though this particular spelling is historically unlikely. There was a good deal of variation in spelling throughout the medieval period. There was no notion of a standard, or of one correct way to spell a word or name. Instead, there were generally-understood conventions for how to convert sounds to letters. Individual scribes adapted these conventions to their own preferences and needs, such as reflecting local dialect differences. When we evaluate a proposed spelling of a name, the first question we ask is whether that spelling was actually used. If we can't find it, we ask whether it is consistent with the patterns of spelling variation used at the time and place that our client wants to re-create. We then consider whether the undocumented spelling would have represented the same sound as the recorded spellings. We find the following spellings of your byname [3, 4, 5]: Richard de Okeley, 1327 Robert de Oklegh, 1327 Agnes de Acle, 1362 John Okelee, 1377 Thomas Acle, or Ocle, 1415 Ocle, 1451 These spellings reflect pronunciations of \AHK-lay\ for the form and \OHK-lay\ for the rest. \OH\ represents the sound of in . The spelling <-lea> for the ending element seems to have been common only very early; we find the spelling in 1161 [4]. We do not find a spelling with until after 1600 [5]. The spelling did not represent the sound \OHK\ in your period [6], nor do we find commonly used to represent \lay\, so we believe that is an implausible spelling for your period. Any of the spellings given above is fine for your period; you might even use different spellings on different occasions. For example, the listed above was also identified as , probably in the same document! These are all documentary, or written, forms. listed above was probably known to his neighbors as . The word was pronounced \OHF\, rather than \@v\ as is now common (here \@\ represents the sound of in and ). You can see by the examples that the use of or began to decline in the 14th century. For the early part of your period, would be a fine written form of your name, with replacing for the spoken form. By the end of your period would be the more common form. We would describe your arms as "Per chevron argent and azure, two fleurs-de-lys sable and a lion rampant Or"; the color of the lion's claws and tongue is an artistic detail which would not always be reflected in the blazon. For simplicity's sake, we will not specify these tinctures in the blazons of our recommended designs; you are perfectly free to use them if you choose. These arms are not quite appropriate for England in the 15th century; we will suggest some minor changes. Each of the individual elements of your design appears in English arms from your period: fields divided per chevron, lions, fleurs-de-lys, and each of the tinctures you've chosen; however, the way you've combined them doesn't fit that heraldic style. In armory with a per chevron field division, we would expect to see three like charges, i.e., three fleurs-de-lys or three lions. They would also likely be "counterchanged", or tinctured based on the opposing half of the field; in this case, the two upper charges would be azure and the lower would be argent. Either dissimilar charges or tinctures not arising from the field would make the armory unusual; both complexities together make the design implausible for your period. Here are a few suggestions of arms which preserve most elements of your original design but which are more consistent with the heraldic style of your period: Per chevron argent and azure, three lions rampant counterchanged. Per chevron Or and azure, three lions rampant counterchanged. Per chevron argent and sable, three fleurs-de-lis counterchanged. Argent, a lion rampant azure and in chief two fleurs-de-lis sable. We believe that you may register any of these designs with the SCA College of Arms [7]. We 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 Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Blaise de Cormeilles, Juliana de Luna, Julie Stampnitzky, Talan Gwynek and Zenobia Naphtali. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 30 April 2001 References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Robert, has 15th C. She also notes, "Robin, a diminutive form of Rob, was in the 13th C. more usual than Robert itself." [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Robin, Robinson, has c.1248, 1279, 1324, 1426. [3] Reaney & Wilson, s.n. Oakley. [4] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), s.n. Oakle Street (and Oakleigh, Oakley et al). [5] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.nn. Ackley, Oakley. He also gives , 1687. Note the modern surname is identical in origin to the modern surname . [6] Goerlach, Manfred, _Introduction to Early Modern English_, English translation by Cambridge University Press, 1991), p.46. The author says that the practice of using to represent the vowel in such words as and began in the period 1520-1550. Accordingly, we believe that the word was not so spelled until the 16th c. and that the use of to represent \oh\ is also a 16th c. innovation and therefore inappropriate for your period. [7] The arms "Per chevron argent and sable, three fleurs-de-lis counterchanged" are close to but we believe sufficiently different from the registered armory of Ceridwen of Moray who bears, "Per chevron argent and gules, two fleurs-de-lys sable and a scarab argent." In Laurel's cover letter dated September 6, 1990, p. 2, he stated: It has been decided, for purposes of X.4.d, e and h of the Rules for Submission, that the bottommost of three charges, either on the field alone or around an ordinary, is defined as one-half the group ... multiple changes to the basemost of three charges under this definition will be granted a maximum of one CVD. Thus, the change of the tincture of half the field is one clear difference, and the change of the scarab in Ceridwen's armory to a fleur-de-lis constitutes a second clear difference.