Period or Not - More Answers and Part 6

[lumineaux]

Delia - Period.  "Boke has found Delia as a Dutch name in a Latin context dated to 1542.  Therefore, Delia is registerable as a Dutch given name." [Delia Weaver, LoAR 12/2004, Trimaris-A]   

Additional cites as promised: 

In Dutch, Delia appears in Aryanhwy’s "Dutch Names in Latin Contexts, 1542" (http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/dutch/latin-dutch.html), and in Italian, it appears in Cesare Negri's "Le Gratie d'Amore / Nuove Inventioni Di Balli (1602/1604)" (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/negri/transcription/).

Hextilda - Period.  See, among other places, "12th Century Scottish Women's Names by Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn (Heather Rose Jones) (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/scott12.html) and "A List of Feminine Personal Names in Scottish Records" by Brian Scott (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/scottishfem.html)

Alba - Period.  "Feminine Given Names in a Dictionary of English Surnames" by Brian Scott  (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/reaneyAG.html).  Alba also is found in 16th century Italian -- "Names from Sixteenth Century Venice" by Julia Smith (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/16thcvenice.html)


Barberella - Period.  "Feminine Given Names in a Dictionary of English Surnames" by Brian Scott (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/reaneyAG.html), under the heading Barbara, where it's dated to c. 1210.

Joie - Period.  It's found in several French sources, including "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris" by  Scott Catledge (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/paris.html)


Kind of sad that half of the SCA seems to be named Catherine, isn't it?  ;-)


I'm continuing with female names again for Part 6:


Fionnabhair

Wilhelmina

Argentina

Beatrix

Modesty

Comments

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Kind of sad that half of the SCA seems to be named Catherine, isn't it? ;-)

Actually, I think it's awesome. One of my long-term ongoing projects is to look at patterns of name popularity across time and language/culture in period and compare it to name popularity in the SCA. The relative popularity of the popular names differs drastically -- John (including all its variants and pet forms) is WAAAAAYYYY more common in period than it is in the SCA. Ditto for Margaret, Katherine, Elizabeth, etc. I would love to see more people registering these names -- just some of the more unusual spellings!

[delabarre.livejournal.com]

I don't have the data, but my recollection from reading Dylan's rolls of the London Masters of Defense was that the vast majority of men in 15XX London were named one of { 'John', 'William', 'Henry', 'James', 'Thomas', 'Richard', 'Francis' }.

The surnames ranged from the banal { 'Smith', 'Cooper' } to the ridiculous { 'Bintwiddle' }.

BTW, the 'default' women's name in AEthelmearc appears to be 'Juliana' for whatever reason. We tend to have AT LEAST one per barony or shire.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Yup. 16th C English men's names are a particularly non-diverse collection. (It's worse in the 17th C, where there are some decades where in some parishes, upwards of 25% of all men were baptised 'John'). In all of the 16th C data that I've looked at, there was only one (http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/english/ormskirk/) where John was not the most common given name -- and Thomas beat it out only by 21 examples (~10% more than John). I've always wondered what the reason for that was, if perhaps Thomas was the patron saint of Ormskirk.

How strange about Juliana in Æthelmearc. It's not particularly common anywhere I've lived. I love seeing regional variations like this.

[lumineaux.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see more Margarets, Elizabeths, Janes, Alices, etc. But for some reaosn every third person is a Katherine or Caitlin right now.

[lumineaux.livejournal.com]

We also have a disproportionate amount of Gaelic in the East, as opposed to the number of people in medieval and Renaissance Europe who actually spoke Gaelic.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a joke I heard some years back that there are more people with the byname 'vom Schwarzwald' (in various forms) in the SCA than actually lived in the Black Forest in period.

[rhiannon14.livejournal.com]

OK - I'll take a shot at the names.

Fionnabhair - I'm guessing yes. No real reason why.

Wilhelmina - Not period

Argentina - Must be period, otherwise why would it even be included? I sense a trick question. : )

Beatrix - Period. Wasn't there some queen/princess/duchess with that name?

Modesty - Not period- On the basis that the "virtue" names were generally slightly later than our period.


On the subject of name popularity, when I joined (1982), it seemed every other woman was named Morgan, and a fair number of the men as well. Now you rarely see newbies choosing that one.

[lumineaux.livejournal.com]

The wacky Puritan virtue names started earlier than you think . . .

[lumineaux.livejournal.com]

I sense a trick question. : )

A trick question? Moi? You must be thinking of someone else. I am lawful good. ;-)

[farmhouse-ghost.livejournal.com]

I know there's a St. Wilhelmina. (patron saint of Mothers)
And a St. Philomena (500 AD) - patron saint of babies I think

My Mom's Confirmation name is Philomena/Wilhelmina. We make soooo much fun of it.

Besides, isn't Wilhelmina a feminine form of Wilhelm, which is period?

[lumineaux.livejournal.com]

Yes, Wilhelmina is a diminutive of Wilhelm. But is a period diminutive? I can't find a Saint Wilhelmina who was venerated in period, FYI.

[farmhouse-ghost.livejournal.com]

I think she was 1850 -- def. not period.

But I'm not sure about a period dimunitive.