Ansteorran College of Heralds to Register the Following Names and Armory
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KATHLEEN M. O'BRIEN 11282 TAYLOR DRAPER LN APT 313 AUSTIN TX 78759-3956 USA Email: [email protected] [delete the section "NOSPAM" to send email to me] Unto Mistress Jaelle of Armida Laurel Queen of Arms, Dame Sionyn Muirgen ni Dhomnall Pelican Queen of Arms, and the College of Arms does Lady Mari Elspeth nic Bryan give greetings. This letter begins my tenure as Bordure Herald. Involved with the transfer of this office is also a change of the software program that we are using to create it. I look forward to comments anyone might have to improve the format, readability, etc. of this letter. I would like to take a moment to thank Master Daniel de Lincolnia for his help in the transfer of this office. It has been invaluable. LoI Notes: 1) If a header name is not listed for a book that has headers, assume that the header name is for the spelling cited. 2) "Talan Gwynek:" indicated that he wrote the rest of the paragraph. My editing is noted by "[...]". And on to the letter! It is the intention of the Ansteorran College of Heralds to register the following names and armory: 1) Alexander Peregrine device. Argent, on a pile gules in chief a fleur-de-lys argent, overall a chevron counterchanged. New device. Name submitted on Ansteorran LoI postmarked 30 September 1998. 2) Beorhtlic Folcwines sunu name and device. Per pale azure and argent, three cubit arms conjoined in pall each sustaining a smith's hammer and a bordure counterchanged New name, new device. No major changes. The sound and spelling of the given name are most important, and the name is intended to be 9th c. Saxon or Old English. The desired gender is male. Submitted as Beorhtlic Folcwineson. We have adjusted the grammar of the patronymic to conform to Old English practice, but we have left any decision about the validity of the given name as an OE adjectival name to Laurel. Beorhtlic: Intended to be Old English masculine given name. Searle, p. xvi, lists Beorht- as an OE protheme and, on pp. 90-91, gives examples of its use dated from 670-1053. He lists - lic as an OE deuterotheme on p. xvii and, on pp. 431-432, gives examples using it dated 699-730. Talan Gwynek: Searle is very hard to use without some expert knowledge. Here he's simply wrong: there is no Old English (OE) deuterotheme -lic. [...] Beorht was indeed an OE name theme, common both as prototheme and as deuterotheme (Ström, Old English Personal Names in Bede's History, 8); -lic, however, is not a theme at all, but rather a mere grammatical element used to create adjectives. [...] Because the adjectival suffix -lic was extremely common, there were a great many adverbs in -lic-e, and as a result this compound suffix was reinterpreted as a single adverbial suffix; see Lass, 207.) The names ending in -lic are therefore not dithematic at all but rather simple adjectives. At -lic, for instance, Searle lists a name Tunlic; this is simply tunlic 'rustic'. Searle also mentions the feminine Cwoemlicu, which as usual he's normalized; Boehler (Die altenglische Frauennamen, 12) gives the actual citation as Cuoemlicu and notes that this is an adjectival name from the Old English adjective ge-cwemlic 'suitable, pleasant, nice'. (The hyphen is not part of the word; rather, it indicates that the word is found both with and without the prefix ge-.) The submitter found Stronglic and Stranglic; these are the adjective stranglic (and its dialect variant stronglic) 'strong, stout, robust; severe'. [...] the question is (1) whether there is an OE adjective beorhtlic, and (2) whether it is a reasonable hypothetical OE name. The answer to (1) is easy: there is indeed an adjective ge-beorhtlic 'brilliant, clear, shining, splendid'. In purely structural terms Beorhtlic is formed from ge-beorhtlic essentially just as Cuoemlicu is formed from ge-cwemlic. However, this doesn't settle (2) because the examples are not really parallel. Cwem-, unlike Beorht-, is not a genuine name theme; so far as I can discover, it occurs in personal names only in the adjectival name Cuoemlicu. (Tun and strang are also not genuine OE name themes.) Beorht, on the other hand, was a very common name theme and a common adjective meaning 'bright, shining, brilliant, light, clear'. The adjective complex ge- beorhtlic is essentially a doublet of the simplex beorht, covering pretty much the same semantic territory. Thus, the hypothetical name Beorhtlic would have occupied the same niche as the well- attested name Beorht. Obviously we don't know everything about OE personal naming. We do know, however, that dithematic names are much the most common sort in the record, with adjectival names very much in the minority. Among these it appears from the paucity of examples that names in -lic were especially rare. Finally, we have no example of the use as a personal name in its own right of a purely adjectival derivative of an already adjectival name theme. In view of these considerations, case for a personal name Beorhtlic is weak to non- existent. Folcwine sunu: Old English patronymic from given name Folcwine, dated 762-1080 on p. 243 of Searle. Talan Gwynek: it's conceivable that in the early 9th c. the submitter could be the son of an OE Folcwine, and it's further conceivable that he could be the son of a Folcuuin(us) from the Continent, so the basic idea behind the patronymic isn't unworkable. The form is a little off, however. The classic OE masculine patronymic is a two-word phrase consisting of the father's name in the genitive case modifying OE sunu 'son'. The genitive of Folcwine is Folcwines, so the grammatically correct OE patronymic is Folcwines sunu. Word spacing was by modern standards quite erratic, but it appears that in general such a patronymic really was written as a two-word phrase. 3) Brian Aaron Cameron name and device. Per bend sinister rayonny vert and ermine, in dexter chief a sheaf of arrows inverted argent. New name, new device. Any changes. Brian: English masculine given name dated to 1273 on p. 53 of Withycombe (3rd ed). Aaron: English masculine given name dated to 1199 on p. 1 of Withycombe (3rd ed). Cameron: Scottish surname. Spelling de Cameron dated to 1421 on p. 81 of Reaney & Wilson. Spelling Cameron dated to 1434 on p. 128 of Black. Device: We plan to instruct the submitter to draw the arrow and the rayons larger in the future and to use fewer ermine spots and rayons. 4) Ceinwen ferch Rhueldevice. Sable, a fess argent fretty azure between three swans naiant argent. New device. Name submitted on Ansteorran LoI postmarked 30 September 1998. 5) Eleanor d'Eresby name. New name. No major changes. Eleanor: English feminine given name dated to 1122 on p. 96 of Withycombe (3rd ed). d'Eresby: English locative byname constructed using the placename Eresby found on p. 340d of John Morris, ed., Domesday Book vol. 31: Lincolnshire (Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 1986). Talan Gwynek: According to Ekwall, Eresby is the modern name of a place in Lincolnshire whose name is in record as Iresbi in Domesday Book, Eresbi 12th c., and Eresby 1238, 1254. 6) Emilie Penrose Blackwell name. New name. No major changes. Submitted as Emily Penrose Blackwell. Prefers the spelling Emily but will accept changes. We have changed the spelling of the given name to the French form which seems to be the closest documented form to what the submitter wants. Emilie: French feminine given name. Withycombe (3rd ed), p. 103 under Emily, lists spelling Emelye as appearing in Chaucer and dates spelling Emulea to 1316. Joseph L. Weidenhan, Baptismal Names (Baltimore: Kenmore Publications, 1968), p. 266, gives Emily as the name of a holy woman of Neocaesarea. Emilie is listed in Dauzat Noms et prenoms p. 234. Dauzat says it's a feminine baptismal name. Penrose: English surname found on p. 241 of C. L'Estrange Ewen, A History of Surnames of the British Isles (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1968). Also dated to 1611 on p. 597 of Bardsley. Blackwell: English surname found on p. 47 of Reaney & Wilson. Spelling atte Blakewell dated to 1296. Spelling change from Blake to Black demonstrated in period under the entry for Blackledge, also on p. 47. Spelling del Blakelache dated to 1332, spelling Blacklach dated to 1473. Under Blackwell, Bardsley has Blakewell 1379, Blackwall 1599, Blackwell 1615 7) Fergus Stout name. Name Change from Gwydion ap Dafydd. Previous name registered 1/91. No major changes. Fergus: Scottish/English masculine given name dated to 1188 as a given name on p. 166 of Reaney & Wilson. Stout: English surname dated to 1373 on p. 430 of Reaney & Wilson. 8) Faoiltighearna MacEanruig name and device. Azure, on a plate a wolf's face sable, a bordure rayonny argent. New name, new device. No major changes. The meaning of the name is most important. Submitted as Faoiltigearna MacEanruig, we have corrected the spelling of the given name to Faoiltighearna. The submitter has provided evidence that she is the legal wife of Gerard MacEanruig and wishes to invoke the grandfather clause to register his surname. While we are unsure as to whether or not this is a valid use of the grandfather clause, we are following the submitter's wishes and turning the matter over to Laurel. Faoiltighearna: Irish feminine given name found on p. 210 of Woulfe who says that Faoiltighearna was the name of an Irish virgin saint. MacEanruig: Scottish surname found on p.