ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1945 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1945 ************************************ From: "Braddon Giles" 5 Mar 2000 Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You wrote to us asking for our assistance in forming an authentic Spanish or Portuguese feminine name for the period 1300 to 1550. You hoped for Castillian references, as some of your ancestors are from that region. In particular you were interested in the name , or including in your name. Finally you raised the possibility of armory showing a silver wolf on a purple and black background. is an excellent Iberian name for your time. We found it mentioned in this spelling through your period in Spain [1] and in Portugal [2], where there were also a in 1524 and a in 1537 [3]. The <~> represents the tilde over the previous letter. Probably the most notable bearer of the name is the queen of Alfonso X, el Sabio, from the 13th century, just before your period of interest. The majority of medieval Iberian women used bynames that derived from either their father's given name or the location where they lived. Throughout your period there was a gradual movement away from literal bynames, which dominated in 1300, to inherited surnames, which most people used by 1550. We have found no names formed like . Descriptive bynames are generally single words, so that either 'white' or 'wolf' might be found, but the two would not be found together. As a byname would not have been understood as "the Wolf"; it means "from (a place called) Wolf". We do not recommend that you use this form because we found no place called and have no basis for believing that such a place name is plausible. We have found the locative byname in 1148 - "Lobo's estate" [4]. Spaniards of your period would certainly have recognized that the element resembled the word for "wolf". You might have been thinking of the modern feminine name , which is derived from , the location of an important appearance of the Virgin Mary. While some scholars think that its name came from an Arabic name meaning 'river of the wolf' [5] others suggest the Arabic wadi-l-lubb, 'river of black gravel' [6]. However, there was a Spanish masculine given name that derives from the Latin , 'wolf'. By the 13th century was the standard spelling, older variants included in 912 and in 916 [7,8]. Violante the daughter or descendant of Lope could have been known as or . There is also a byname that means 'wolf' in Spanish, for example 1180, 1226, , , and the diminutive form found in all from 1258 [9]. It is also found within your period in the examples and his father in 1535, and Alonso Herna/ndez Lobo in 1536 [10]. In summary, we suggest several names that would we think meet your requirements: While you mentioned that you were thinking of arms showing a silver wolf, you didn't specifically ask for our assistance in this area. We hope you don't mind us offering some advice. In medieval Spanish heraldry the use of purple was mostly for charges rather than fields. To make a better recreation we would suggest a plain black background, or a white field with purple charges. If you use any of our suggested names, a wolf in your arms would be an excellent choice. The practice of using a charge whose name sounds like your surname is called "canting," and it was very common in medieval Spain. We think it unlikely that canting would be done with before the last century of your period, as it would likely have been an individual byname before that time, saying literally, "child of Lope." Making cants on names that change from generation to generation wouldn't make sense. Canting on (a placename, which presumably would be used by generation after generation living there) would be likely throughout your period. Here are some designs you can consider, all of which we believe can be registered with the SCA College of Arms: Sable, 3 wolves rampant argent. Sable, 2 wolves in pale passant argent. Sable, 2 wolves counter-passant argent. Argent, five wolves passant, two, one and two, purpure. Sable, 6 wolves rampant, two, two and two, argent. '2 wolves in pale' means an upper and lower wolf both facing left. 'Counter-passant' means that the upper wolf is facing to the left as you view the shield, while the lower one is facing to the right. The arrangement of the wolves in the last two designs is common in medieval Iberian heraldry. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write to 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 Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Adelaide de Beaumont, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Maridonna Benvenuti, Arval d'Espas Nord, Raquel Bueneventura, Salvador Paolo de Barcelona, Rouland Carre, Amant le Marinier, Pedro de Alcazar, Juliana de Luna, Zenobia Naphtali, Aryanhwy merch Catmael and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Giles Leabrook. 05 / Mar / 1999 __________________________________________________ Bibliography. [1] Elsbeth Anne Roth, _16th-century Spanish Women's Names_ (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1998) http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/spanish.html [2] Juliana de Luna, _Portuguese Names 1350- 1450_ (WWW: Arval d'Espas Nord, 1998) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/juliana/portuguese/ [3] Juliana de Luna, _Portuguese Names from the 16th Century_ (WWW: Arval d'Espas Nord, 1999) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/juliana/portugal16/ [4] Diez Melcon, R. P. Gonzalo, _Apellidos Castellano-Leoneses: Siglos IX-XIII, ambos inclusive_ (Universidad de Granada, 1957) p. 240. [5] M.A. Palacios, _Toponimia A/rabe de Espan~a_ s.nn., in Ca/ceres and , a river in Teruel. [6] Torbert, Eugene Charles, _Cervantes' Place-Names: A Lexicon_ (Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1978) [7] Ferna/ndez Flo/rez, Jose/ A., _Coleccio/n diploma/tica del monasterio de Sahagu/n (857-1300): Volume V (1200-1300)_, Leo/n, Spain: Centro de estudios e Investigacio/n San Isidoro, Caja Espan~a de inversiones, Caja de ahorros y Monte de Piedad, 1994. [8] Diez Melcon, R. P. Gonzalo, _Apellidos Castellano-Leoneses: Siglos IX-XIII, ambos inclusive_ (Universidad de Granada, 1957). [9] Kremer, Dieter. 'Bemerkungen zu den mittelalterlichen hispanischen cognomina', in _Aufsa"tze zur Portugiesischen Kulturgeschichte_, vols. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17. Sonderdruck aus Portugiesische Forschungen der Go"rresgesellschaft. Herausgegeben von Hans Flasche (Mu"nster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1970-1981/82); p. 164-5. [10] Romera Iruela, Luis, and Ma. del Carmen Galbis Di/ez, _Catalogo de Pasajeros a Indias, Siglos XVI, XVII, y XVIII_ (Sevilla: Archivo General de Indias, 1980); s.n. Lobo.