ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1679 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1679 ************************************ 9 Jun 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us to suggest medieval forms of the names , , , etc. and . You wrote that you believe them to be English forms of Greek names. Here is what we have found. We did not find evidence of any of these names in period Greece or England. is first noted in England in the 17th century and only became popular there in the 19th [4]. We did find and related names in some other languages. In Italian, we found in Tuscany in the 13th and 15th centuries [5, 6] and , , and other forms in Venetian Crete in the 14th and 15th centuries [13]. In France, we found in 1528 [11]. In Spain, we found in the 15th and 16th centuries; would have been a normal diminutive form of the name in this period. [14, 15]. We found several masculine forms in Poland, mostly from the 14th-16th centuries [7]: Angelino 1345 Angelinus 1349 Enghelinus 1360, 1390 (recorded in the genitive in both cases) Angelotus 966, 1455-1480 Angelo 1376 (gen), 1492 Angelus 1455-1480 Any of these could be feminized by replacing the final <-o> or <-us> with <-a>. We're not sure where the name arose. It might derive from a 2nd century martyr [3]. The masculine name is recorded in 9th century France [2], and a feminine version of this, , would be plausible in early medieval France. The name was more popular in medieval Italy: There was a Saint Seraphina (usually referred to as Santa Fina) who lived in Italy during the 13th century [1], and there was a 15th century and a 16th century [10]. Note that these are modern spellings. The period spellings are probably closer to those illustrated by the masculine examples and , from Florence in 1427 [12]. In Eastern Europe, the feminine name is recorded in Russia as late in our period [3], and the masculine form was used in Poland [7]: Seraphin 1228, 1410, 1478, etc. Zeraphin 1438 Szeraphim 1470-1480 These forms could be feminized by adding <-a>. The Eastern European examples suggests a connection with Byzantine Greece, but we found no evidence that the name was used there [8, 9]. If you'd like help building a name around any of these possibilities, write us again and we'll be happy to help. 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 Walraven van Nijmegen, Juliana de Luna, Talan Gwynek, and Jehan fitz Gilbert. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 9 June 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Butler's Lives of the Saints, Herbert J. Thurston and Donald Attwater eds. (New York: P.J.. Kenedy & Sons, 1958) [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). [3] Paul Wickenden of Thanet, "A Dictionary of Period Russian Names" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1996). [4] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Angela. [5] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from Thirteenth Century Perugia" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/perugia/ [6] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998) . http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/catasto/ [7] Taszycki, Witold (ed.), _S{l/}ownik Staropolskich Nazw Osobowych_, vols. I-VII (Wroc{l/}aw: Zak{l/}ad Narodowy Imienia Ossoli{n'}skich, Polska Akademia Nauk, 1965-1987). [8] Bardas Xiphias, "Common Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the 6th and 7th Centuries" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/early_byz_names.html [9] Bardas Xiphias, "Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997) http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/introduction.html [10] Catholic Encyclopedia. (WWW: New Advent, Inc., 1997). http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/ [11] Talan Gwynek, "Late Period Feminine Names from the South of France" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/latefrenchfem/ [12] Ferrante laVolpe, _Men's names from Florence, 1427_ (WWW: Self-published, 1996). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ferrante/catasto [13] McKee, Sally, _Wills from Late Medieval Venetian Crete 1312-1420_, 3 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1998, ISBN 0884022455). Examples indexed in vol. 3. [14] De La Torre, Antonio and E. A. de la Torre, eds., _Cuentas de Gonzalo de Baeza Tesorero de Isabel la Cato/lica_ (Madrid: Biblioteca "Reyes Cato/licos", 1956). [15] Martz, Linda, Julio Porres, and Martin Cleto, _Toledo y los Toledanos en 1561_, Publicaciones del Instituto Provincial de Investigaciones y Estudios Toledanos, Monografias, Vol 5 (Toledo: Patronato "Jose Maria Cuadrado" del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1974).