ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1472 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1472 ************************************ 28 Feb 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate Old Norse masculine name. Here is what we have found. is a fine name. One example is recorded in the work of Snorri Sturluson [1]. We suspect that the derivation of the god's name from a human name is incorrect, but it's still a perfectly good choice for your persona. You wrote that you found as a word meaning "law man", the root of the English family name . The derivation is correct, but somewhere along the way, someone misread the word: It is . The comma represents a backward comma hanging from the , which indicates that it's pronounced like the vowel in . The symbol {dh} represents the letter edh, which is written like a backward '6' with a bar across the upright, and pronounced like the in . Thus, the word is pronounced \LAWG-mathr\. The final 'r' is unvoiced, nearly silent, and not a separate syllable. does mean "law man", an office roughly analogous to a judge; it is used in the sagas. It came to be used as a first name in Orkney, and was the source of the Scottish surname [2, 3]. In Norse culture, "law man" or "law speaker" was an important civil office. It is possible that the SCA College of Arms will consider it to be a title of rank, and therefore not registerable. 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 Talan Gwynek, Lindorm Eriksson, and Hartmann Rogge. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 28 Feb 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). [2] Cleasby, R., G. Vigfusson, & W. Craigie, _An Icelandic-English Dictionary_ (Oxford: At the University Press, 1975), s.v. lo,gma{dh}r. [3] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Lamond.