ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2685 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2685 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 12 Apr 2003 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked for help constructing a name for a Norwegian woman living in Bergen in the late 14th C. You said you were interested in a variant of or , but if they were not commmon you asked if we could offer other typical choices. You also asked if we could suggest appropriate masculine names from which to form a patronymic, and also wanted to know if widows in Norway also sometimes used their husband's names as a byname instead of their father's. Here is the information we have found. is found in Norway from the 1400s on, and in the 16th century it quickly became one of the most common Norwegian feminine names. [1] However, we haven't found it used before the 15th century, so we do not recommend it for your period. The spelling or doesn't appear to have been used before 1600. In Norway, the name is found as from c. 1300 in various spellings. [1] Specific forms that we found are: [2] Elin 1303, 1317-1318 Eilin 1321 {AE}lin 1317 {AE}llin 1353 Ellin 1358 {O|}lyyn c. 1359 {AE}ilin 1370 {AE}liin 1399 {O|}lyn 1404 Elyn 1445 In these names, <{AE}> represents the A-E ligature, where the two letters share a vertical leg, and <{O|}> is an with a slash through it. Since you indicated interest in common Norwegian women's names, we collected some information on that as well. In one study of names from 1337-1350, the three most common feminine names, out of 300 women, are 28 instances, 16 instances, and 16 instances. [3] Note that these are _modern_ spellings; if you are interested in period spellings of a particular name, we can probably provide some. From the same source we can offer a list of the most common men's names, from a pool of about 2500 men: [3] 1. Sigurd 115 2. Jon 106 3. Olav 97 4. Eirik 79 5. Arne 71 Tore 71 7. Ogmund/Agmund 64 8. Ivar 59 9. Torstein 55 10. Hallvard 48 11. Tord 39 Bj{o|}rn 39 13. Ba*rd 37 Nikolas 37 Ha*kon 37 16. Pa*l 36 Gunnar 36 18. Erling 35 19. Gudbrand 34 20. Guttorm 32 21. Peter 31 22. Andres 30 Orm 30 24. Alv 29 Eiliv 29 26. {O|}vind 27 27. Helge 26 28. Ha*vard 25 Eindride 25 Amund 25 31. Aslak 24 Kjetil 24 33. Torgeir 23 34. Torbj{o|}rn 21 {O|}ystein 21 Einar 21 37. Torleiv 19 Hallstein 19 39. Trond 18 Audun 18 In this list, an * following a letter represents a circle above that previous letter. Note again that these spellings have been modernized, and likely represent some variant spellings, just as we found a number of spellings of . If you are interested in any of these names for your father, we encourage you to write back if you are interested in knowing what variant forms may be available. In documents from between 1370 and 1410, we found that almost all widows were identified by a patronymic, and not by their husband's name. [4] We therefore recommend you use a patronymic byname, whether or not your persona is a widow. The most common form for a patronymic is the father's name in the genitive (possesive) case followed by , e.g. 1391, 1402, and 1408. [4] Once you'd chosen your father's name, we'll be happy to tell you what the correct genitive form of it is. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Argantgui filia Catmaili, 12Apr03 -- References: [1] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed. _Norsk personnamnleksikon_, 2nd ed. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1995). s.nn. Anne, Elin, Helene [2] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). s.n. Eli/n [3] Kruken, op. cit., p. 319 [4] Fladby, Rolf, _Kongebrev i Diplomatarium Noregicum_ (Oslo: Kommisjonen for Diplomatarium norvegicum, 1965). We used the on-line version, available here: http://www.dokpro.uio.no/dipl_norv/diplom_field_eng.html Examples we found are: 1391 (b.10 nr.85) 1402 (b.5 nr.419) 1408 (b.4 nr.771) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 1 May 2003, Arval: Modified the presentation of the list of names from [3] to make it clearer that these are modern spellings.