ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1374 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1374 ************************************ 8 Nov 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about the name , which you want to use for a Scottish woman whose mother was French. This letter is a brief answer to your question. If your aim is to find documentation for a name so that you can register it with the SCA College of Arms, we may or may not be able to help you. Documenting submissions isn't our focus: We want to help you to choose and use a name that fits the historical culture you are re-creating. Our research can sometimes be used to support submissions to the College of Arms, but that it not our goal and our results are often incompatible with the College's needs. If your main goal is to register a particular name, then we may not be able to help you. is a Hungarian form of , which is itself a Latinized form of the common early German name . is probably an adaptation of a pet form of ; medieval German pet-forms of that name include , , and [1, 2]. The <"> in the name represents an umlaut (two dots) over the previous letter. We found a couple references to Saint Kunegunda which say that she is also known as Saint Kinga [3, 4]. We don't know if was used in period, or if it is a post-period invention. Given the German pet forms we did find, is certainly possible; but we can't say more than that. Regardless of whether existed in period Hungary, we are quite certain it did not exist in period Scotland. We have seen no evidence that any Hungarian name was used in Scotland or vice versa. Evidence of interaction between the two countries isn't enough to demonstrate that the name is a good re-creation of historical names and it may not even meet the College of Arms lower standard of authenticity: You would need evidence that Hungarian and Scottish names were mixed together. Languages were very, very rarely mixed in period names, especially not disparate languages like Hungarian and Gaelic. If names were adopted from one language into another, they were adapted to fit the spelling and grammar of the new language, much as German might have become in Hungarian. In Scotland, a woman's name would have been used and recorded according to the conventions of one of the Scottish languages. In your period, there were several language spoken in Scotland. At various times from 1000 to 1400, the principal languages were Old or Middle English, Gaelic (the same language spoken in Ireland at the time), Old Norse, and Norman French. After 1400, the two important remaining languages were Gaelic in the Highlands and Scots in the Lowlands and the towns. Scots was closely related to contemporary English. Each of these languages had its own patterns of naming, and these different styles only mixed in very limited ways. Therefore, the time and culture you choose for your persona will determine how your name should be constructed. is a late-period Scots spelling of the Gaelic name "son of Fionnghuine" [5]. The slash represents an accent on the previous letter. In Gaelic, this name was used literally in period, i.e. by a man whose father was named . The practice of using surnames to indicate clan membership didn't arise until well after our period. No Gaelic woman in period would have been called , since she wasn't anyone's son. The corresponding feminine form is "daughter of Fionnghuine", pronounced \IN-yen IN-win\. A name like is quite appropriate for a Scottish Gaelic woman of your period. Before 1200 or so, it would have been written but pronounced just the same [6, 8]. If you'd like to consider some other Gaelic first names, you can find some lists on the web at: http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/celtic.html You might want to start with "Scottish Names 101", which contains some very useful information. It is at: http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/scotnames101.html Late in our period, might also have been used by Scots speakers. If so, it would have been an inherited surname, in the modern style. It still wouldn't have anything to do with clan membership -- clans were a Gaelic cultural phenomenon in period -- but would simply mean that your father's surname was also . A late 15th century Lowland woman might have been called [7]. If you'd like to consider some other Scots feminine names, you can find lists on the web page mentioned above. I hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Walraven van Nijmegen, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Alan Fairfax, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 7 Nov 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Ka/lma/n, Bela, _The World of Names: A Study in Hungarian Onomatology_ (Budapest: Akedemiai Kiado, 1978), p.31. [2] Stark, Franz, _Die Kosenamen der Germanen_ (Wiesbaden: Dr. Martin Sa:ndig oHG., 1967 [1868]), p.69. [3] http://members.aol.com/jjnowicki/polkinga.htm [4] http://www.catholic.org/saints/saints/kunegunda.html [5] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. MacKinnon. [6] Arval Benicoeur, "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/arval/scotgaelfem/ [7] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Early 16th Century Scottish Town Women's Names" (WWW: Privately pubished, 26 Oct 1996). http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/scottownwomen16.html [8] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990).