ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2136
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2136
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19 Oct 2000
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Alia la Phale\ne Noir>, meaning "Alia the Black Moth",
is an appropriate name for a 13th century French woman.  Here is what we
have found.

You told us you found <Alia> mentioned in one of our reports [1].
Unfortunately, as we noted in that report, we found the name used in the
9th century [2].  We have no evidence that the name was still in use 400
years later, so we cannot recommend it for your period.

Happily, we found an alternative that might appeal to you: <Aele>, recorded
in Artois (in northwestern France) around 1300 [3].  This is a rare
feminine name, but it does fit your period.  It was pronounced \AAH-l@\,
where \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the 'a' in <about> or <sofa>.

Unfortunately, the byname <la Phale\ne Noir> doesn't fit any pattern of
naming that we've observed in your period.  We found a few examples of
bynames based on the names of insects and other animals, but none that were
compounded with an adjective.  For example, we found <Abeille> "bee" used
for a beekeeper and <Leleu> "the wolf" [7], but nothing like <Le Leu Noir>
"the black wolf".

Even if you drop <noir>, the name won't fit your period: The word
<phale\ne> appeared in French only in 1568 [4].  By then, surnames were
inherited in France, so there's no chance that the word could have been
used to create a new surname.  In addition, <phale\ne> is a technical term
from entomology; the common term for a moth is <papillon de nuit>
(literally "night butterfly").

We found an alternative that might appeal to you.  The word for "butterfly"
was used as a byname as early as the 13th century, when it appears as
<Papellon>.  The form <Papelon> was recorded in the 15th century.  It was
used to signify quickness, nimbleness, or fickleness [5, 6].  Both examples
were recorded in Picardy, quite close to Artois where we found the given
name <Aele>.  <Aele Papellon> or <Aele la Papellonne> would be a fine
choice for northwestern France in your period.  The word <la> "the" appears
to have been optional in this sort of byname.


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 Isfael ap Briafael, Aryanhwy merch
Catmael, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek,
Adelaide de Beaumont, Amant le Marinier, Juliana de Luna, and Dietmar von
Straubing. 

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  19 Oct 2000


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References

[1] Academy of S. Gabriel report 991
http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?991

[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), I:32b.

[3] Bougard, Pierre, and Maurits Gysseling, _L'Impot Royal en Artois
(1295-1302): Ro^les du 100e et du 50e pre/sente/s et publie/s avec une
table anthroponymique, Me/moires de la Commission Royale de Toponymie et de
Dialectologie #13 (Louvain: Imprimerie Orientaliste, B.P. 41, 1970).

[4] Robert, Paul, _Le Petit Robert 1: Dictionnaire alphabe/tique et
analogique de la langue franc,ais_ (Paris: Le Robert, 1985), s.v. phale\ne.

[5] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de
personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de
Picardie, 1967), p.219.

[6] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et
Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Papillon.

[7] Dauzat, s.nn. Abeille, Leleu.