ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2463 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2463 ************************************ 04 Mar 2002 From: Marianne Perdomo Machin Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about a name appropriate for a woman living in southern France who was born in or near Poitiers around 1170. You expressed an interest in the given name and, failing that, in names similar to or , or or . You asked for an appropriate byname meaning "white", "fair", or something similar. Alternatively, you were interested in a locative surname based on the city of Bayonne or some other southern city along the coast. As you are probably aware, for most of our period, northern and southern France used different languages. The language in northern France, including Paris, was French (also called "Langue d'Oil"), while the southern language was Occitan (also called "Langue d'Oc" and "Provencal"). Occitan is a Romance language different from French, most closely related to Catalan and sharing some features with Spanish and Italian. There was a good deal of overlap between the two cultures, and accordingly, we find many names recorded in both languages, though the Occitan forms of names were frequently very different from the French forms. Some names, however, were used in only one language or the other [1]. Poitiers is near the northern border of the Aquitaine region, in a French-speaking area, and ordinarily we would expect anyone born there to have a French name. The Bayonne region, on the other hand, is in the Occitan-speaking region. A woman born in Poitiers who moved to Bayonne would have been known by an Occitan form of a French name, rather than a name which we would consider typically Occitan. However, since the Aquitaine court of your period had strong ties to the Occitan region, we believe it is plausible that a woman born in Aquitaine might have an Occitan name. We have found a number of examples of in various spellings: Galienne [2, 8] Gualiana [4] 11-13th century Galiana [4] mentioned in the vida of Uc Brunenc, a troubadour who died around 1223 Galliena [5] Lyon, probably 9th-10th century However, most of these are from literature, not necessarily names that real people would have used. , a literary name, is the French form of or something close. We have also found several examples of surnames based on the masculine and its variants. The Latinized name was recorded in 1205 and in 1252. There are also later examples [5]. is the Occitan form of the name [6, 7]. or would be French forms of the same name. We are thus confident that is an appropriate name for an Occitan-speaking woman living in the late 12th century to early 13th century. The same woman would use or something similar in French contexts. We also found the following variant of : Elionor [7] Occitan form 13th c. And some recorded variants of Aalis, Aaliz [8] French form, Paris 13th c. Alison [8] French form, Paris 13th c. Alis [18] Occitan form, 1296 Alicia [9] Occitan form, Foix 14 th c. Regarding bynames, we found a number of examples of names referring to fair coloring, based on several different root words: Albus [11] 13th-14th c. Nice Albi [11] 13th-14th c. Nice Albinus [11] 13th-14th c. Nice Albini [11] 13th-14th c. Nice Blanque [14] Blancus [11] 13th-14th c. Nice Blanchi, Blanquij, Blanqui [11] 13th-14th c. Nice Blanca (f), Blancha (f) [10] Blanqueta (f) [12] Blancaflor (f) [12] Many of these are in Latinized forms, and were recorded as men's bynames. Feminine bynames have been marked (f). The represents an \i\ sound, not a \j\. We think that a woman from your area and period could have been described by any of the following bynames referring to her fair coloring: , , . The place is mentioned in 1105 in the phrase "Saint Maria of Bayonne" [15]. That suggests an Occitan spelling , a form we find used as a given name in the mid-14th century near Carcassonne [16]. We therefore believe that a woman from Bayonne in your period could have been known as or, using the adjective form of the name, [17]. The resulting name might have been recorded in Latin as or . However, a woman who moved from Poitiers to Bayonne would more likely have been known in her new home as "from Poitiers" rather than "from Bayonne". In Bayonne, nearly everyone is from Bayonne. This kind of byname was used mostly either for the rulers of a town or for people who had moved from one place to another. We've found the 12th-13th century names "Geoffrey of Poitiers" and " Ademar of Poitiers" [7]. So your persona might more likely have been known as . The locative is pronounced \deh pay-TYAY-oos\. 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 Maridonna Benvenuti, Juliana de Luna, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Adelaide de Beaumont and Julie Stampnitzky. For the Academy, Leonor Martin 4 March 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: [1] "Occitan Geographic Domain" (WWW: OccitaNet 1995-2001) http://occitanet.free.fr/en/geodom.htm [2] Flutre, Louis-Fernand, _Table des noms propres avec toutes leurs variantes, figurant dans les romans du Moyen Age e/crits en franc,ais ou en provenc,al et actuellement publie/s ou analyse/s_ (Poitiers: Centre d'e/tudes supe/rieures de civilisation me/die/vale, 1962). (A letter followed by a denotes an acute accent over that letter.) [3] Langlois, Ernest, _Table des Noms Propres de toute nature compris dan les Chansons de Geste_ (New York: Burt Franklin, 1971 [1904]), s.n. [4] Chambers, Frank M., _Proper Names in the Lyrics of the Troubadours_ (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971). The date for the death of Uc Brunenc is from: Jean-Paul Fraysse, Daude de Pradas http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jean-paul.fraysse/oc/daude.htm [5] 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), II:55a [6] The following forms related to are patronymics. The forms in <-i> and <-j>, in particular, look to be in origin genitives of a masculine name ending in <-us>. var.: , 1205 1252 undated but between 13th & 15th C 1296 1297 1333 1333 1362 1388 1419 Compan, Andre/, _E/tude d'Anthroponymie Provenc,ale: Les Noms de Personne dans le Comte/ de Nice aux XIIe, XIVe, et XVe Sie\cles_, thesis at the Universite/ de Paris IV, Dec. 1975 (Paris: Librarie Honore Champion, 1976), volume II, p. 691. [7] Ramons lo Montalbes, "French / Occitan names from the 13th century" (WWW: Ramons lo Montalbes, 1997) http://s-gabriel.org/names/ramon/occitan/ [8] Lord Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris" (WWW: Stephen R. Gold, 2001) http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html [9] Cateline de la Mor, "Names from Fourteenth Century Foix" (WWW: Triste Elliot, 1998, 2001) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/cateline/foix.html [10] These are given names but the same spelling is likely for a byname. Brenon, Anne, _Le petit livre aventureux des pre/noms occitans au temps du Catharisme_ (Tolosa: Loubatie\res, 1992). [11] Compan, op. cit., p.489-490 [12] Chambers, op. cit., s.n. Blancaflor [13] Compan, op. cit., p.481 [14] Talan Gwynek, "Late Period Feminine Names from the South of France" (WWW: Brian M. Scott, 1999) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/latefrenchfem/ [15] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963), s.n. [16] We found as a given name (mid-13th century from Gaja-la-Selve) derived from the Occitan form of the place name . Gaja-la-Selve is near Carcassonne. Brenon, op. cit., s.n. [17] Compan, op. cit., p. 191ff. We found the following ethnic adjectives amongst southern French names. Both are feminine forms: from Saorge from Gap in Hautes-Alpes [18] Compan, op. cit., volume 2 s.n. . This example's from a byname, .