ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2588 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2588 ************************************ 22 Nov 2002 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a French woman living around 1400, and you asked us to suggest surnames that refer to a dog in some way. Here is what we have found. Only a few Old Testament names were used in medieval Europe. Some were common among Christians -- , , -- and others among Jews -- , , -- but most were not used at all in Europe before the late 16th century, when many more became fashionable among Protestants in England. As far as we've discovered, was exclusively a Jewish name in most of Europe until well after our period. More precisely, the Hebrew name used by Jews is better transliterated as or ; is a Latinized form of that name, and is a modern spelling based on the Greek form of the name and popularized by the Authorized Version of the Bible [1]. We've found one example of a French Jew with this name, recorded as in Aix 1480, and several other possible examples recorded as 1329, 1341, etc. [7]. (The slash represents an acute accent on the preceding letter.) We have also found examples of the name in Jewish communities in 14th century Nuremburg, 16th century Frankfurt, 15th century Marseille, and 14th century Navarre [2, 3], among other places. It was probably as common in Jewish communities in France as elsewhere in western Europe. So if you want a name suitable for a Franco-Jewish woman around 1400, is a reasonable choice, and you could write it in French as . The Greek-influenced spelling is very unlikely as it is not consistent with French spelling rules. We found a variety of French surnames that refer to dogs in one way or another. All our examples come from Picardy, in northwestern France; but only because our best source on the subject comes from that region [4]. With a few exceptions that are marked with asterisks below, we see no reason why the same names couldn't have been used elsewhere in northern France. le Chien ("the dog") la Chienne ("the bitch") Chiene (probably used for the wife of a man called ) le Kien * (spellings in and are typical of the northwest) le Quien * Chanaille ("the mutt", used for a coarse, bawdy person) Caignon (this and the following are diminutives) Caignet Cagnet Caingnet la Doge * (derived from the English "dog") le Waignon * (from the name of a type of sheepdog) li Waignonele * (these two were probably found only in the northwest) Mastinet (from the name of a type of guard dog) Matine/e Gous (a type of dog with floppy ears that barks alot) Clabaud (same as the previous) Levrier ("greyhound", denotes speed or agility) des Quiens * ("of or with the dogs") Desquens * (same meaning) Many of these bynames could equally have been used to describe someone's appearance or behavior, or to identify his profession (dog-trainer, dog-merchant). If you particularly want a name that means "the bitch", then we recommend . If your goal is to choose a name that gives you a good excuse for using a dog in your arms, then another approach you might consider is to take a name that sounds a bit like the French word . The practice of taking a heraldic charge whose name sounds like your surname is called "canting", and was very common in medieval France. For example, you might take the common surname , which could have been used to mean "from/at the oak-tree" or "from [a place called] Le Chesne" [5]. That name sounds enough like to support a very authentic cant. In her own community, a Jewish woman was probably most often identified as her father's daughter. However, Christians would have identified her with a name that fit their own naming customs, and we have examples of French Jewish women identified with names very similar in form to and [6]. The first three are descriptive: Rose l'Englesche "Rose the Englishwoman" Sarre la mirgesse "Sara the doctor" Sarre la Bocacharde (we can't find a translation of this byname; it is probably uncomplementary) These two are locative: Bele-Assez de Gonesse Rauve de Miauz 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 Juliana de Luna, Julie Stampnitzky, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, Galiana de Baiona, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 22 Nov 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983), s.n. Rebecca. [2] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "Jewish Given Names found in _Les Noms des Israe/lites en France_" (WWW: Self-published, 2000). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/levy/ [3] Carrasco, Juan, Fermi/n Miranda Garci/a, and Eloi/sa Rami/rez Vaquero, _Los Judi/os del Reino de Navarra: Documentos 1351-1370_, Navarra Judaica 3* (Pamplona: Gobierno de Navarra, Departmentado de Educaci/on y Cultura, 1996). [4] 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.214. [5] Morlet, p.69. [6] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html [7] Seror, Simon, _Les Noms des Juifs de France au Moyen Age_ (Paris: Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1989), s.n. Re/beca.