ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2308 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2308 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 21 May 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a period Englishman. Here is what we have found. Although it is popularly associated with medieval England, the name was actually not used in England until modern times. It was introduced by Sir Walter Scott for his _The Vision of Don Roderick_ (1811) [1]. He apparently created the name by anglicizing the Spanish via its Latin form , which was itself used in medieval England as a Latin form of several unrelated names. The name ultimately derives from the early Germanic common ancestor of a group of names in several Germanic languages, e.g. in German, and in Old Norse, in Old Danish [2, 3, 4]. (Transcribing Scandinavian languages in plain ASCII requires some special notation: The slash represents an acute accent on the preceding letter. The symbol {dh} represents the letter edh, written like a backward <6> with a crossbar on the upper limb and pronounced here like the in . {oe} stands for an o-e ligature, i.e. the two letters squashed together to create a single letter. represents an with a diagonal slash through it.) The name passed into Old French in a form something like [5], but if it travelled to England with the Normans, it was very rare and dropped out of use very early [6, 14]. However, the Latin form of the name, , was sufficiently familiar to the Anglo-Normans that they used it as a Latin equivalent of several etymologically unrelated names that they encountered among the native inhabitants of Britain: the Welsh names and , and the Scottish Gaelic name . Both Welsh names were rendered as in medieval Latin documents [7, 8]. However, this appears to be just a documentary custom; the spoken name is better represented by 1538 and by the 16th century Anglicized forms and [8, 9]. It was pronounced \HR@DH-erkh\. \HR\ represents an aspirated \R\, \@\ stands for the sound of the in , and \DH\ represents the sound of the in . The \e\ in the second syllable should be pronounced as in , and \kh\ stands for the raspy sound of the in the Scottish word or German . The Gaelic , pronounced \ROO-@dh-ree\, is recorded in non-Gaelic documents in Scotland in various forms [10]: Rotheri comes, 1124-27 John filius Rothri, 1264 Rodric[us] Macrogri, 1297 Rouland fiz Aleyn Mac Rotherik 1296 Your surname, on the other hand, is a fine choice for an Englishman at least from the 13th century onward. We have found early examples 1220, 1273, c.1300, and 1312 [11, 12]. In summary, we do not believe the name was used as in Britain at any time in our period. If you are interested in a Welsh or Scottish Gaelic persona, we can suggest a name that might have been rendered as something very much like in Latin or English, but these would not have been spoken forms of your name.. For example, a 13th century Welshman known as "Rhydderch the Huntsman" [9] might have been known to his English neighbors as , and his name could have been recorded in Latin as or . Similarly, a 13th century Scottish Gael named "Ruaidhri Domhnall's son" might have been identified in Latin or Norman-French documents as . If you'd like more information about a Welsh or Scottish Gaelic name, please write us again. 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 21 May 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Hanks, Patrick, and Flavia Hodges, _A Dictionary of First Names_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1990), s.n. Roderick. [2] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931), s.n. Hro/{dh}ri/kr. This name was apparently adopted into Gaelic; it appears in Scottish records in the name c.1200 [13]. [3] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48), s.n. Ro|rik. The name was Latinized as , as in "Gertrud Ro|rik's daughter" 1474. [4] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.n. Rorich. [5] 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:138a. Examples of the name recorded in early medieval documents in France (mostly in Latin forms) include: Hrodericus: 747-48 Hroderih: 766 Hrodhericus: 805 Ruadirih: 764-92 Rodericus: 796, 872, 880, 1021, 1059-67, 1075, 1076 Rudoricus: 883 Rodricus: 812, 893, 938 Rudricus: 903 Roddericus: ca.970 Rudericus: 913, ca.1050 [6] Forssner, Thorvald, _Continental-Germanic Personal Names in England in Old and Middle English Times_ (Uppsala: K.W. Appelbergs Boktryckeri, 1916), s.n. Roricus. He notes a Latinized example in Suffolk , but gives no date. [7] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Roderick. "Rothericus son of Gryfin is mentioned in FA 1303." [8] Morgan, T.J. and Prys Morgan, _Welsh Surnames_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1985), s.nn. Rhydderch. [9] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "A Simple Guide to Constructing 13th Century Welsh Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/welsh13.html [10] Black s.nn. Rory, Macrory. The name may represent the Gaelic patronymic , but the presence of the Norman names and suggest that here might represent the rare Norman name that is elsewhere represents as [6]. [11] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Hunter. [12] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.n. Hunter. [13] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Macalewin. [14] Clark, Cecily, "Willelmus rex? vel alius Willelmus", in Cecily Clark, _Words, Names and History: Selected Papers_, ed. Peter Jackson (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995), p.289 she writes "... the name elsewhere Latinized as (possibly, but not certainly, an OFr reflex of CG )". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, June 2005, Arval: Note [8] originally cited the headwords Rhydderch and Rhodri; we actually only used the former (and the latter doesn't exist).