ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1049 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1049 ************************************ From: 23 Jul 1998 Greetings, Here's the information we found on , which you wanted to use as a name for a 15th-century Burgundian woman. is the name of a historical region of France, (1) so is a historically reasonable name. Of course you may run into some problems if you want to register the name--we'll talk about those in a moment. is a modern English form of , the Latin name for the mother of John the Baptist. In 15th-century France, the most common forms are and , with a variety of spelling variants including: (2) * Ysabeau 15th century * Isabella, Isabelle, Isabiau, Yzabiaul (13th-15th centuries) The closest name we found to is , which would be pronounced with two syllables, like . (3) may or may not be related to . It is likely that any form of used with would probably be returned by the SCA College of Arms--generally, alternate forms of a famous person's name are also protected. To try and avoid this problem, you could use (which means "the Valosian") instead of "of Valois." Another possibility is . is the capital of Valois. You should definitely get a second opinion on whatever name you decide to use, since we are not primarily oriented toward SCA rules. The disclaimer at the bottom of the message includes the address of someone you can contact for advice about registering your name. Arval Benicoeur, Walraven van Nijmege, and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. In service, Alan Fairfax Academy of S. Gabriel (1) Britannica Online (WWW: Accessed May 21, 1998) (2) Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967). (3) Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987).