ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2544 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2544 ************************************ 28 May 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether or is an appropriate name for a 10th or early 11th century Anglo-Saxon woman, and how she would have been identified as "daughter of Draguin". Here is what we have found. or is a fine feminine name for this period. This former spelling appears in a charter from 1022 [1]. It was pronounced \WOOLF-wu"n\. \OO\ here stands for the vowel in . The symbol \u"\ stands for the German u-umlaut in , which is the sound you get by pronouncing the in with your lips positioned as if you were saying as in . is a somewhat unusual spelling of the name . (The symbol {ae} represents the letter aesc, written as an a-e ligature.) It also appears as and in 10th century charters, but these are Latinized spellings [1]. There is only one known bearer of this name in pre-Norman England, a 10th century abbess of Romsey [2]. It is therefore not as typical a name as , but it still a good choice. It was pronounced roughly \MAAR-wu"n\, where \AA\ represents the vowel in , but with longer duration. We have found no evidence of as an English name. If it existed, it would have been a later-period spelling of a hypothetical Old English name [3]. Taking that as our hypothesis, the standard Old English name meaning "Wulfwynn, Dragwine's daughter" is , pronounced \WOOLF-wu"n DRAHGH-win-@s DOHKH-t@r\, where \KH\ stands for the raspy sound in the Scottish word or German and \GH\ stands for the voiced version of the same sound. \OH\ represents the vowel in the word and \@\ represents the sound of the in . 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 Talan Gwynek, Catriona inghean ui Bhraonain, Mari neyn Brian, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Juliana de Luna For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 28 May 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Marieke van de Dal, "Anglo-Saxon Women's Names from Royal Charters" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/marieke/anglosaxonfem/ [2] Selte/n, Bo, _The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names_, two volumes (Lund, Sweden: Royal Society of Letters at Lund, 1979), II:122. [3] We have found only one solid example of an Old English given name that used the element : The place name appears to include a given name [4]. Two other names in appear in English records, and [4]. The first is a Latinization of a name that seems likely to have been imported from France or the Low Countries [5]. The second is an English rendering of a Danish name [6]. We would not recommend constructing a new name based on such slim evidence, though if _had_ existed, is an entirely plausible construction. It would have been pronounced \DRAHGH-win-@\. The element <-wine> was also written <-uine> and <-uuine>, particularly in the North. After the Norman Conquest, we often find this element spelled <-uin>. [4] Searle, William George, _Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum_ (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1897), s.nn. Dragm{ae}r, Dragmel, Dragwulf. [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), I:74a. She has examples of the very rare theme , but not the specific compound . [6] Fellows Jensen, Gillian, _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968), s.n. Dragma/ll.