ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2862 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2862 ************************************ 30 Jul 2004 From: Ursula Whitcher Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You first asked us whether the name and the byname would have been appropriate for an Anglo-Norman woman living in northern England in approximately 1270 AD. As we explained earlier, is a Latin phrase which means something like "of the assarts" or "by the assarts", where an assart is a piece of forest land made arable by clearing the trees and brushwood. An Englishwoman of your period might well have had her name recorded in a Latin document as ; however, the spoken English form of her name would have been different. You then asked us whether we could determine the English form corresponding to . We'll discuss the given name first, and then the byname. Our only thirteenth-century example of occurs as a byname: we found a man named in 1279. [1, 1a] The byname is metronymic: that is, it derives from the name of someone's mother. In the thirteenth century in England, metronymic bynames were usually literal rather than inherited, so the mother of was probably named . Other forms of appear in the thirteenth century as both names and bynames: we found the given name in 1296, and the related bynames , , and . We also found the modern surnames and , which, like , are probably derived from by adding common diminutive suffixes. [2] Thus, we believe is a fine name for a thirteenth-century English woman. It would have been pronounced roughly \LIH-lih-ohn\. As you noted, is found in 1239. [3] We didn't find an example of the word "assart" written in English in your period, so we have to extrapolate based on examples from documents written in Latin, and later English forms of the word. In the medieval Latin used in England, "assart" took a variety of forms, including , , , and . [4] We found the plural forms and as bynames, as well as the singular and . [5, 8] We also found several places named after assarts. There are modern places named , , , , , and and ; the last two place-names are based on the plural . [6, 10] We also found the names of several medieval English fields in documents written in Latin, including c.1250, c. 1150, and in the reign of Henry II, and in the reign of Henry I. All of these field names are of the form 'So-and-so's assart'. [7] Finally, we found two examples of the originally French compound word or 'bad assart' in English documents: appears between 1155 and 1195, and appears in 1242. [11] The byname might have meant either 'at the assarts' or 'of a place actually named , , , , , , or the like'. In thirteenth-century England the distinction between a description like 'the assarts' and an actual place-name derived from such a description, like , was still rather fuzzy, and it's not clear to what extent the difference was significant. It's probably safe to assume that the byname implied residence by actual assarted land, whether or not that land had acquired a proper name. Since forms of the word "assart" without the first syllable (, , , etc.) are common both in the medieval Latin names and in the modern placenames, we believe that a spoken English version of the name would probably have omitted the prefix as well. Without an English example from your period, we can't be certain which preposition would have been used; however, we believe , meaning "at the assarts", is a reasonable byname for your period. This name would have been pronounced roughly \AHT-t@ SAR-t@s\. (Here \@\ represents the the sound of in and ; this sound is called schwa.) We hope this letter has been useful to you. Please do not hesitate to write to us again if anything is unclear or if you have further questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Kolozsvari Arpadne Julia, Arval Benicoeur, Juliana de Luna, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Ursula Georges 30 July 2004 References: [1] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/. [1a] A 1273 instance of this name is cited by Withycombe. It is almost certainly the same as the 1279 example in reference [1]. Her dates for the Hundred Rolls are known to be a few years off. Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Elizabeth. [2] P. H. Reaney & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995) s.n. . [3] Jeanne Marie Lacroix (Martha L. Ranc), "'Misplaced' Names in Reaney & Wilson - Sorted By Name" (WWW: Martha L. Ranc, 2003). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/misplacednames.htm. [4] R.E. Latham, _Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources_ (London: British Academy, 1965) s.vv. , . [5] Reaney & Wilson s.n. has 1185, 1239, and 1310. looks like an agent noun, 'one who assarts', but if it is, the preposition is an error, perhaps for . [6] P. H. Reaney, _The Origin of English Place Names_ (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960, reprint 1984), p. 197. [7] John Field, _A History of English Field-Names_ (London: Longman, 1993), p.19. is a grammatically modified form of ; in the original text, it probably followed the preposition . [8] _Curia Regis Rolls of the Reign of Henry III Preserved in the Public Record Office_, Vol. XVII, 26 to 27 Henry III (1242-1243), ed. Alexandra Nicol (London: HMSO, 1991), has (Nr. 549), who appears in Nr. 1258 as and, in a variant from another roll for the same term, . [9] Talan Gwynek, "Given Names from Early 13th Century England" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/eng13/. A appears at Ruislip in Middlesex. [10] A.H. Smith, _English Place-Name Elements_ (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1956) s.v. . [11] Eilert Ekwall, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) s.n. .