ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1966 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1966 ************************************ From: 12 Apr 2000 Subject: client 1966: Ze'ev--final draft Greetings from the Academy of St Gabriel! You asked for information about naming practices among 10th century Egyptian Jews, and specifically whether they used the names , or or other names meaning "wolf" or "lion". Here's what we've learned. We have not seen any evidence that was used as a given name during the Middle Ages. The earliest reference we have to its use is a man named , who lived during the late sixteenth century in the Aegean region. (1). We have no evidence of the name having been used earlier, and believe that in this case it may be a literary name rather than one given at birth. We believe that is a relatively modern name, and would not recommend that you use it. appears to have been a name given to Jewish men during the Middle Ages. We have no evidence that it was used by Jews born in Egypt, but we did find reference to a man named , who lived in Cairo at the end of the eleventh century. He was not a native of the city, but a Jew who came to Cairo from a community somewhere in Europe. (2). We believe, therefore, that the name was current in some Jewish communities around your chosen period. It would therefore be an appropriate choice of given name, although probably not for a man born in Egypt. We have not been able to find in use anytime before 1600, and would not recommend that you use it. Many names used in European medieval Jewish communities were created by translating Biblical names into the vernacular, or by translating words and concepts associated with those names in Biblical texts. For example, Jews in England put the name , "servant of God" into Norman French literally, as . (3) , a commonly used Hebrew name, was often represented in secular languages by names meaning 'lion', because of the association of Jacob's son Judah with a lion in chapter 49 of the book of Genesis. Names like and were popular in northern European Jewish communities because of this connection (4). One thirteenth-century rabbi was apparently known as both and , a common French transliteration of , suggesting that medieval Jews considered the two names to be connected.(5) was a widely used given name among Jews throughout the Middle Ages, and might be one for you to consider, since it did carry a connotation of meaning 'lion', although the name literally does not mean that. Jewish men living in Arabic-speaking areas in the Middle Ages used both Hebrew and Arabic names, and we think that in many cases men had names in both languages. In some cases, these were simply the same names in their equivalent forms. For example, a man called might have also been known as . There are two masculine Arabic names that are derived from words meaning 'lion'; and . Both of these are known to have been used by Jewish men in Egypt, and might have been used either alone, or as Arabic forms of a name such as or (6). In conclusion, we believe that is not a good recreation for your period and place of interest, but that , used alone or as a nickname for a man named is a possible name for a Jewish man in Egypt. Either or would be excellent Arabic names for a tenth century Egyptian Jewish man. In order to create a full name appropriate to your period and culture, you would select a given name for your persona's father. Both the Arabic and Hebrew words for 'son of' appear to have used to form names among Egyptian Jews. A man named whose father's name was might have been called either , or . We hope that this letter has addressed your questions clearly. If anything is unclear, or if you would like further information on any point, please contact the Academy again, and we will try to be of service.Assistance in the research and writing of this letter was given by Juliana de Luna, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Julie Stampnitzky, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Amant le Marinier and Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja. For the Academy, Raquel Buenauentura April 12, 2000 (1) _Encyclopedia Judaica_, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1971, article: "Benjamin Ze'ev ben Mattathias of Arta" (2, 6) Goitien, Solomon D, _A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza: Volume III: The Family_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978). (3), (4) Eleazar ha-Levi, "Jewish Naming Convention in Angevin England" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/jewish.html (5) Le/vy, Paul, _Les Noms des Israe/lites en France: Histoire et Dictionnaire., (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1960) s.n. Arie/