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Please note: This article has been removed from the Laurel website at the request of the author and is being retained here only for archival purposesThe table below lists personal names of women as extracted from two sample years taken from the Aberdeen Council Register. Aberdeen is a Royal Burgh located on the North East coast of Scotland. In the sixteenth century, Aberdeen's roughly 3000 to 6000 residents were all Scots speakers. The two sample years are October 1501 through November 1502 and October 1520 through November 1521. [The extraction of names from the sample years is still in progress. This is an interim list, and these numbers are not final.] These are all the women's names found in the sample years, with the exception of a few names that were illegible. It should be noted that some 20 to 25% of all entries in the sample years mentioned women, and that some 5 to 10% of all individuals mentioned in the sample years were women.
The table lists the names from most frequent to least frequent. The first column, Name, is the most common spelling of each name found. The second column, # People, is the number of different women who bore each name. The third column, Spellings, is the actual spellings of each name as found in the manuscript. This includes diminuatives and nicknames of the name. The fourth column, # Occur., is the number of instances of each spelling found in the manuscript in the sample years. The fifth column, Langauge(s) of Entries, is the language or languages used in the entries where each spelling was found.
With few exceptions, most spellings were used either entries written in Scots, or entries written in Latin, but not both. The Latin forms may be considered translations of the Scots forms. The Scots spellings represent what the women were actually called in daily life. For example, though a woman may appear in a Latin language entry as "Mariote", she would not have been called "Mariote" by her friends and neighbors. Rather, they would have called her "Marion" when speaking to her. In the case of "Ammy", there seems to be no Scots language form. It is possible that "Emy" is the Scots form of Latin "Ammy".
| Name | # People | Spellings | # Occur. | Language(s) of Entries & Notes |
| Agnes | 18 | Agnes | 13 | Scots & Latin |
| Agnetis | 3 | Latin Only (genetive case) | ||
| Canny | 3 | Scots Only | ||
| Canne | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Margaret | 12 | Margeret | 9 | Scots Only |
| Margaret | 8 | Scots Only | ||
| Margarit | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Margoret | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Margreit | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Margret | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Mege | 2 | Scots Only | ||
| Megy | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Meg | 3 | Scots Only | ||
| Mag | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Jonet | 11 | Jonet | 17 | Scots & Latin |
| Gennat | 2 | Scots Only | ||
| Jonete | 2 | Latin Only | ||
| Janat | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Joneta | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Jonetam | 1 | Latin Only (accusative case) | ||
| Katherine | 11 | Katherine | 6 | Latin Only |
| Catering | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Catherine | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Katerin | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Katering | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Katherin | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Katring | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Katte | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Cristiane | 10 | Cristiane | 8 | Scots Only |
| Cristine | 5 | Latin Only | ||
| Cristene | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Cristian | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Cristina | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Marion | 10 | Marion | 5 | Scots Only |
| Marioun | 4 | Scots Only | ||
| Marione | 2 | Scots Only | ||
| Mariote | 3 | Latin Only | ||
| Ellene | 8 | Ellene | 4 | Scots Only |
| Elena | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Ellen | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Ellenj | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Ellin | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Elizibetht | 7 | Elizibetht | 3 | Scots Only |
| Elizibeth | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Besse | 2 | Scots Only | ||
| Bessy | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Marjory | 4 | Mariory | 2 | Scots Only |
| Mariorie | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Marrory | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Annabell | 3 | Annabell | 3 | Scots Only |
| Annabele | 2 | Scots Only | ||
| Annabella | 2 | Latin Only | ||
| Annabelle | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Anabell | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Eby | 3 | Eby | 3 | Scots Only |
| Elspet | 3 | Elspet | 3 | Scots Only |
| Elspat | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Mally | 3 | Malle | 2 | Scots Only, probably diminuative of Marion or Mary |
| Maly | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Bege | 2 | Bege | 2 | Scots Only |
| Beigis | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Gelleys | 2 | Gelleys | 1 | Scots Only |
| Gelis | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Ammy | 1 | Ammy | 2 | Latin Only |
| Ammij | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Ammio | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Emy | 1 | Emy | 1 | Scots Only |
| Isabell | 1 | Isabell | 2 | Scots Only |
| Isabele | 1 | Scots Only | ||
| Isabelle | 1 | Latin Only | ||
| Nanss | 1 | Nanss | 2 | Scots Only |
I am grateful for the assistance of The Aberdeen City Archives, and in particular of the Archivist, Miss Judith Cripps. The sample years were extracted from volumes VIII and X of the Aberdeen Council Register.