ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1600 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1600 ************************************ From: 30 Jun 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wrote to us for help constructing a name for a late 11th century Moravian woman, and included a list of names in which you were interested and wanted us to review. You also asked about the possibility of including the middle name to indicate that your mother was Norwegian. The last question is straightforward, so we'll answer it first. It is inappropriate to represent mixed parentage by mixing languages and name elements. While this is a common practice in the SCA, it is not a historical one. Furthermore, middle names were very rare throughout Europe in the period of the SCA, and were probably unknown in Bohemia and Moravia before the 15th century. We recommend that you do not use a middle name. =========================================================================== As for the rest of your name, you indicated that you wanted it to be in the Moravian language. However, Moravia has never had its own language; it was ethnically Czech with a significant minority of Slovaks and, later, populations of Germans and Poles. Given that the majority of the population spoke Czech, we have worked under the assumption that it is the language you desire for your name. Unfortunately, none of our members has much information specific to Czech names. Worse, records from Eastern Europe are very scarce before the 13th and 14th centuries. Worse still, women's names don't appear much in records before the end of the SCA's period there. This does not mean that we can't help you. In fact, we found some helpful information about the names you sent us by comparing against our Polish and Russian sources. Why Polish and Russian? Polish, Czech, and Slovak are all Slavic languages belonging to the "West Slavic" line. These languages all derive from an earlier culture and so share many features including many names. Russian is also a Slavic language, but is an "East Slavic" one. It is more distantly related to Czech than Polish or Slovak. Therefore, if a name appears in both Polish and Russian at an early date, it is not unreasonable to infer that it was present in most of the early Slavic languages. We can therefore assume it might appear in Czech as well. Or to put it another way: Since we don't have really good sources for Czech names, the best we can do is to look across other Slavic cultures for names that recur, and infer that they were also in use in Czech. If a name or name construction appears with some frequency in Polish and in Russian, then it's a reasonable guess that it's a broadly found name or construction in Slavic cultures. We also know that Czech spelling was almost identical to that of Polish for your period and until the early 15th century [11]. This helps us to suggest appropriate spellings for you in the absence of Czech records. As an Empire, Moravia existed for less than 100 years, from the early 9th century until 906 when Magyar raiders destroyed it. From that time, Moravia was united with the Kingdom of Bohemia. Despite short periods of strong leadership, internal dynastic conflicts kept the kingdom weak and so it was increasingly dominated by the Holy Roman Empire. [1] Czech naming seems to have undergone a significant shift around the year 1300, possibly associated with the replacement of the native Pr^emysl rulers with the Luxembourg dynasty [2,10]. (The r^ represents an 'r' with a hacek over it -- a small "v"-like symbol.) One feature of this shift is the adoption of French and Christian given names, which were apparently uncommon before 1300 [2]. This is an important point, since several of the names you asked us about are Christian, and therefore were probably not introduced until well after your chosen time period. We can't recommend those names as good choices for the 11th century. =========================================================================== Here is the information we found about your given names (first names): Dalibora: This is a feminine form of the Slavic masculine name . The older spelling is [2], and it was fairly common in Slavic languages to make a feminine name from a masculine Slavic name by adding "-a". We found in Polish circa 1265 [3], and the masculine form appears in Russia in the 12th and 13th centuries [4]. looks like a reasonable name. Daniela: This appears to be a form of the Biblical name , and is a masculine name, not a feminine one. [2,3] Unlike Slavic names (to which an <-a> could be added to make them feminine), is an introduced foreign name. These names were generally restricted to one gender or the other, and in fact we have not found a period feminine example of this name in any language. Kristina and Magdalena: These are both names of Christian saints, and so are probably not good choices for a woman of your period. Milena: This appears to be an old Czech name formed from the Slavic name element [2]. While we could find no evidence of this name in Polish and nothing in Russia before 1636 [4], it looks like a standard pet form. Without period evidence of , we can't give that name a strong recommandation, though it does look plausible. Of your choices for a given name, we think would be the best recreation. =========================================================================== In addition to a given name, you will probably want to choose a byname. Names in many languages in our period included a "byname" as well as a given name. A byname is any extra word or phrase added to the given name to further identify an individual. In modern naming, we have fixed, inherited bynames, called surnames. In contrast, for much of our period people used descriptive phrases to distinguish people with the same given name, and a different byname might be used in different circumstances. A woman might be identified as her father's daughter, by some physical trait, or by place of residence, depending on which description helped best to identify her at the time. Unfortunately, we do not have any useful information about what kind of byname would be used by a woman of your culture and era. In many cultures of your period, people had only a given name, and would not have a byname recorded at all. The choices that you sent to us all look like patronymics (bynames identifying your father), and we do know that most Slavic cultures used patronymics from a very early date, so such names are almost certainly the best choices. What we don't know is the precise grammar to use in the name. Neither Polish nor Russian is much help, since each has its own way of putting the name together. Our best guess from the limited information we do have is that there are three endings that are added to the name of the father to make it a byname for a woman [6]. We've illustrated these below using the example of a woman named whose father is : Dalebora Jana simply adds feminine <-a> Dalebora Janova adds <-ov> plus feminine <-a> Dalebora Janovec(a) adds plus feminine <-a> we're less certain about this construction Thus, you would need to add <-a> or <-ova> to the name of your father to create a patronymic byname from it. Adding <-oveca> is also a possibility, but we're not as sure about the correctness of this. We recommend that if you submit your name for registration in the SCA, that you allow for corrections to grammar -- someone knowledgable in Czech may be able to fine-tune our suggestions. Keep in mind also that a patronymic byname indicates the name of your father. A woman named is not part of a family named , but is the daughter of a man named . You are not simply choosing your own name, but that of your father as well. Here is the information we found about your bynames (last names): Janova: This looks like a patronym from , the Western Slavic form of Russian and Christian [2,6]. We found many examples of this name in Polish going back to the early 13th century [3], but since this is a Christian name it may not be appropriate to your period in Czech. Petrava: This looks like a typo for , meaning "daughter of Peter". Like , it is a Christian name. Anreschava: We could not find this name nor anything like it. If you can tell us where you found it, we may be able to find some information. Drahomira: is the modern Czech equivalent of Polish and Russian [3,4,6]. We found a 10th century citation of in German sources [5]. We suspect that either or would be a reasonable byname for you. Dusana: In modern Czech, there should be a little "v" (a symbol called a hachek) over the "s", so it is pronounced like \SH\. We found as the name of a 14th century Serbian king [7,8], and have also found in Polish in the 14th century [3,9]. We're not sure what spelling of would be appropriate for your period, but the name looks like a good choice. Jaromierza: There is a modern Polish surname which derives from , so might come from using the same grammar, but we haven't found instances of this in Czech. We found a Czech and Polish name [3,6], from which might come or , but we could not find anything closer to the spelling you sent us. In German sources, we found dated to 1045, suggesting that the name existed in neighboring Bohemia and Moravia [5]. Therefore, the spelling might be the most appropariate. Ladislava: is an old Czech name [6]; simply has the feminine <-a> added to make this a byname. However, apparently comes from an older spelling [5]. might be fine for your period, but since we're not sure when this new spelling was introduced would be a more conservative choice for your period. Zivana: Likewise, this comes from , and there should be a hachek over the "z" to make it sound like the "s" in . The name is probably related to Russian , which we found dated to 1454 [4]. However, we could not find earlier evidence of this name, and so cannot give it a strong recommendation. =========================================================================== Thank you for asking us about a culture for which we don't often receive questions. We enjoyed finding new resources and learning about Moravia so that we could better help you. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. If you need clarification about any point in this letter, please feel free to write to us again. Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Blaise de Cormeilles, and Arval Benicoeur contributed to this letter. In service, --Walraven van Nijmegen Academy of S. Gabriel =========================================================================== Bibliography: [1] Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, _A History of Slovakia_ (New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1996) [2] Franti{s^}ek Kope{c^}ny/, _Pruvodce Na{s^}imi Jme/ny_ (Praha: Academia, 1991) [3] Witold Taszycki (ed.), _Slownik Staropolskich Nazw Osobowych_, 7 vols. (Wroclaw: Zaklad Narodowy Imienia Ossolin'skich, Polska Akademia Nauk, 1965-1987) [4] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, _A Dictionary of Period Russian Names_ (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1996) http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/ [5] Gerhard Schlimpert, _Slawische Personennamen in Mittelalterlichen Quellen zur Deutschen Geschichte_ (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978) [6] Jan Svoboda, _Staro{c^}eska/ Osobni/ Jme/na a Na{s^}e P{r^}i/jmeni/_ (Praha, {C^}eskoslovenska/ Akademie Ve/d, 1964) p.184 [7] Francis Dvornik, _The Slavs in European History and Cicilization_ (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1962) pp.111&ff. [8] Milan Bosanac, _Prosvjetin Imenoslov_ (Zagreb: Prosvjeta, 1984) [9] Kazimierz Rymut, _Nazwiska Polako/w_ (Wroclaw: Zaklad Narodowy im. Ossolinskich -- Wydawnictwo, 1991) [10] Encyclopaedia Britannica, article on "Czechoslovakia" [11] Franti{s^}ek Cu{r^}i/n, _Vy/voj Spisovne/ {C^}e{s^}tiny_ [The Evolution of Written Czech] (Praha: 1985)