ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1133 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1133 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 3 Aug 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our opinion on , which you wanted to use as a 16th century French name. You also wanted to know what the Breton equivalents of and were. Here is the information we have found. Our sources in late-period French names are limited, and none are specific to Brittany. appears to be a modern Breton variant of the French , which in turn derives from the Gaulish or Germanic , also spelled . [1,2] was the patron saint of Paris, and the name was thus commonly used in that city. In a 1292 census of Paris, the forms , , and all appear. [3] By the late 16th century, the French were generally using inherited surnames, so a locative surname (a surname based on the location of residence), would not be entirely likely. However, if your family had moved from Brittany to France a few centuries earlier, it's plausible that you could be called or , "of Brittany." Other common forms meaning "of Brittany" are , , , , , and . [1] We did not find any particular forms of or that were specific to Brittany. We did find evidence that and were particularly common in the northwest, but we're not sure whether is includes Brittany. [1] The word first appeared in 1198, but did not reach Paris until the 14th century. The surname and its variants are peculiar to Picardy and Normandy. [4] 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 Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Academy, --Arianuia filia Catmaili August 3, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987). [2] 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), s.n. Genevie\ve [3] 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) . [4] Dauzat, Albert, _Les Noms de Famille de France_ (Paris: Librairie Guenegaud, 1988). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 5 Aug 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wrote: > So, is modern... and is 5th-6th century and not in > use during the 16th century? We only have modern evidence for . We can date definitely as late as the 9th century and possibly as late as 1120, on the basis of the book by Morlet that we cited in our previous letter. >> We did find evidence that and were >> particularly common in the northwest > Would that be (a instead of e in third syllable)? The earliest example of the word is 1198 (which we spelled incorrectly in our previous letter). The spelling eventually gave way to the spelling; both are probably appropriate in your period. > Would Gennevote/Genevote be pronounced "Gen-eh-'voh-tah"? Yes, that's pretty close, with the stress on the third syllable. According to E. Einhorn, _Old French: A Concise Handbook_ (London & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1974), the 12th century pronunciation would be \"djen-@-'voht-@\, changing in the 13th century to \"zhen-@-voht-@\. In these pronunciations, \@\ represents a schwa (the sound of the in ), and \oh\ is the sound of the in German or French . The ' indicates a primary stress and " marks a secondary stress. Please note that we found only in the late 13th century. We do not have evidence that it was still in use in the 16th century. We don't actually have a citation for any form of the name in the 16th century -- our sources for 16th century French names are pretty slim -- but since remains in use in modern times, it is likely that it was used then, too. Arval - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7 Aug 1998 From: Josh Mittleman > Sorry to keep bothering you with this... I just wanted a name a little less > common than Genevieve. I found a 14th century use of Jenovefa on the Web and > wondered whether that might be considered evidence. Unfrotunately, it's hard to judge whether either of your sources is good evidence. > Here's some 14th century Breton poems, one of which is titled Jenovefa > Rustefan: > http://www.utbm.fr/les.personnes/thierry.vignaud/galleg/barzhaz/barzhaz.htm Here, we have a title of a 14th century poem, but we don't know if the title is reproduced in its original form or is translated into modern Breton. > Here's a German (?) use of Genovefa in 14th and 15th centuries: > http://www.genealogy.com/~brigitte/theroff/runkel.txt The examples on this page are 15th and 16th century. There are two potential problems with these citations. First, they are German rather than French. The fact that a name was used in Germany doesn't tell us whether it was also used in France. Second, we have the same translation problem: The names on this page are rendered in modern, standardized spellings, so we can't know what form of the name was actually used in period. Given these two pieces of data, it is certainly plausible that was used in your period. It is up to you to decide whether it's sufficiently good evidence for your re-creations. It probably is good enough for the College of Arms, though I can't swear to it. By the way, thanks for pointing us to the nobility genealogy database. It's an interesting resource. Arval