ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2531 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2531 ************************************ 17 May 2002 From: Sara L Friedemann Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked for help creating a name that would be appropriate for a woman of Norman descent living in England between 1100 and 1350. You were interested in the given names , , , and , and the surnames or . Here a brief letter with the information we have found. , , and are all forms of French name , which was originally a form of . They are appropriate for the later part of your period; we find them in 1379, 1244, and 1260 respectively. [1] , a pet form of , is also a fine choice; we find this form recorded as a byname in 1198. [1] We would like to note, however, that the name was not pronounced \KATE-lin\, as it is in modern times. Rather, the correct medieval pronunciation is something between \KAHT-@-lin\ or \KAHT-@-leen\, where the \@\ is the sound of in or . We also found examples in your period of both surnames that interest you. We find recorded as in 1187 and in 1219. [2] Here, the apostrophe indicates that the final of the name has been dropped. By the late 13th century, these were probably pronounced \d@ mor-tayn\ or \d@ MOR-tayn\, though the earlier probably retained the Old French pronunciation, \d@ mor-TEN~-@\, where the \N~\ is the sound of n-tilde in Spanish 'mister' and in French 'mountain' and Italian . Spellings of that we found are as follows: [2,3] de Montford 1086 de Montfort 1086 de Munford 1086, 1159, 1242 de Mundfort 1087 de Muntford 1200 de Mundeford 1247 de Monteforte 1273 Mounfort 1326-7 We believe that any of these spellings would be appropriate for all of your period. We hope that this brief letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter were provided by Zenobia Naphtali, Adelaide de Beaumont, Arval Benicoeur, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 17May02 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/. [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.nn. Montfort, Morten [3] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980). s.n. Mountford