Ask the Academy

We often answer questions within a few days if they are covered by our past work or articles in our library. If we have to do further research on some parts of your question, then it will probably take a couple months for us to reply (and sometimes more when our caseload outruns our manpower). Please don't let that discourage you from asking, though: We'll do our best to help you as quickly as possible.

Please answer the following questions about the name and/or armory you're interested in. Because we're primarily interested in helping people choose historically-accurate names and arms, we'll be better able to help you if you specify the culture, time and place you want to re-create; we'll provide you with information on names and arms from that period. If you've found a name somewhere and want to know where and when it might have been used, we may be able to help. Give us all the information you have, including as complete a description of your sources as you can.

We're Not "The Heralds"!

The Academy of Saint Gabriel is not part of the SCA or its College of Arms. We don't accept or return anything or tell you what you can or can't do; we just judge names and armory against the best historical information we can find. What you do with our research is entirely up to you.

Our purpose is to help people who want names or arms that are definitely historically accurate. If we tell you that your name or arms isn't historical, you may still be able to register it with the SCA. For questions about registering names or arms, please contact the submissions heralds in your kingdom.

Help Us to Help You

Because reference books and research are organized by culture and language, it's very difficult to find a name based on sound. We can't search through every name book written for a sound, so your best bet is to pick a culture to work with so that we have a place to start. Similarly, since spelling, pronunciation, and naming practices in most cultures changed over history, we'll be best able to help you if you can define your period as narrowly as possible. If you want a name appropriate for Barcelona in 1346, tell us that. If your question is vague, then the best we'll be able to give you is a vague -- and not very helpful -- answer.

Many people aren't especially focused on the authenticity of their names and arms. There's nothing wrong with that: Each of us cares most about different aspects of medieval re-creation. The Academy is here to help people who are interested in authentic names and arms. If you aren't, then our research probably won't help you. For example, we are almost certainly not going to be able to help a person trying to find documentation to support the registration of a name he made up.

We do not have the resources to trace your ancestors or the history of your family, research specific historical people, or trace your family arms. We will not answer those sorts of questions. For genealogical research sources on the Web, try the Yahoo! genealogy index. If you're interested in finding out about your family's coat of arms, please read these comments. Because of the volume of mail we receive, we will not respond to questions obviously outside our focus.

A Few Last Preliminary Notes

We have found that our style of on-line consultation works best when we correspond directly with the person whose name or arms we're researching. So rather than sending us a question for your friend or client (if you are yourself a herald), please ask that person to contact us directly using the form on this page. If that's not feasible, then we will consult secondhand when necessary; but we'd prefer a direct conversation.

Unfortunately, we get far more questions than we can answer properly; so we may not be able to accept your question. You can help us by reading through the available information before you write to us. We have collected articles on medieval names that answer many of the common questions people ask us. Our library contains other documents that will help you with your own research. If you're having trouble finding what you want in those resources, then don't hesitate to send your question to us. We'll do our best to help.

If you're looking for a Scottish name, you will probably find it helpful to read Scottish Names 101. A lot of what many people believe they know about period Scottish naming is wrong, and this article is a pretty good overview linguistic and cultural factors that influenced them.

Contact Information

Enter your e-mail address (You must fill out this field correctly, or we can't send you an answer.):

Please answer all of these question.

What type of question are you asking?
Is this question about a name or arms for yourself?
What gender or type of name do you want?
What culture, language, or language group do you want your name or arms to fit?
What's the earliest date you're interested in?
What's the latest date you're interested in?

Comments

Please explain as clearly as possible what you want. If you have ideas about the name or arms that you want, please describe them and tell us where you got them. Tell us what culture you want to re-create, when and where your persona was born and lives. If you found your name in a book or a movie or just made it up, please tell us: The more we know about what you want, the better we'll be able to help you. If you found it in one of our articles, please refer us to the particular article. There are too many names in the articles in our library for us to reliably remember where to find each one.

Many of our clients ask us about specific names or arms. Sometimes we can easily find evidence that their choices were used in the cultures they wish to re-create. When we can't, we try to suggest alternatives. To do that for you, we need to know more about your interests. Please tell us what you are and aren't willing to change or modify, e.g. that you don't care about your surname, or that you must have a name starting with R, or that your culture is more important than the specific name.

If you're asking about a specific name, how do you pronounce it? Please spell it phonetically as well as you can. Use upper case for stressed syllables. If you like, you can use our system for explaining pronunciation.

Note: It may take two or three months for us to reply to your question.

Thanks for your interest.

Back to the Academy of S. Gabriel Home Page

This page maintained by Jim Trigg (known in the SCA as Blaise de Cormeilles), blaise@s-gabriel.org

Last updated 22 July 2004.