Multigender Historical Names

Multigender Historical Names

Introduction

We present the following lists of names, which are marked as used by men and women in SCA period, in the hope they may be of use to gentles of any gender today who wish to choose a neutral name.

Please be assured that it is also absolutely acceptable for anyone of any gender to choose a name of any gender. And that many names from other languages don’t have an immediately obvious gender association to a modern English speaker.

To give sources, alternate spellings and possible origins or meanings for every name would make these articles prohibitively long. I recommend putting names of interest into the search function at morsulus.org for further information. I have limited the source references to no-photocopy resources and other reliable sources such as the articles referenced at s-gabriel.org.

All credit for the original research toward these names goes to the authors of the articles referenced - we have not included their names with the links to the articles to avoid confusion, but we and the SCA at large owe them great gratitude. When submitting names for registration to the SCA College of Arms, please refer to and credit the original article.

Contents

Please note: This article set is a work in progress, the headings below will become active links when the relevant article becomes available.

English, Old English, and Anglo-Norman Names

Scandinavian Names

Germanic Names

German, Low Countries, and Gothic names

Names from Southern Europe

        Frankish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Occitan and Catalan, Italian and Roman names

Celtic Names

Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Manx, & Breton names. Also Pictish and Gaulish

Names from Eastern Europe

        Slavic (including Russian), Baltic, Hungarian, Romanian and Greek names

Names from Western and Central Asia and Northern Africa

Demotic, Coptic, and Nubian names; Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Islamic names; Armenian, Central Asian and Ancient Iranian names

Eastern and Southern Asian Names

Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Mongol names (until this article is available, you may like 56 Unisex Song Dynasty Mingzi From the Chinese Biographical Database)  

Romany, Jewish and American Names

Titles

Gentles interested in non-gender-specific names may also be interested in the following information on titles.

July 2018 Letter of Acceptances and Returns - Cover Letter

The April LoPaD asked for commentary on three possible gender-neutral English titles at the Award of Arms level: Armiger, Gentle, and Noble.

Armiger literally means a person who bears arms. The word was used after names in our period, as in "Garlof Ducheman, Armiger". We approve its use as a title in the form "(Given Name), Armiger" or "(Name), Armiger."

We approve Noble as a title used before a given name, as in "Noble Sampsoun" or "Noble Edwarde".

The majority of commenters opposed restricting use of the word Gentle to Society members of a particular rank. Therefore, we are not protecting that word as a title at this time.

May 2018 Letter of Acceptances and Returns - Cover Letter 

We approve nobilis as a gender-neutral title in medieval Latin at the rank of an Award or Grant of Arms. This title was typically used after a given name, as in Haroldus nobilis.

May 2021 Letter of Acceptances and Returns - Cover Letter 

We [...] approve nobile as a gender-neutral title in late period Italian at the rank of an Award or Grant of Arms. This title can be used either before (nobile Barbara Bossa) or after (Tristano Calco, nobile) the name. Use of the forms il nobile or la nobile will cause this title to become gendered.

Additional Resources

Gender in Names has a list of “Possible Gender Neutral Names”, with some overlap with this article. This resource provides some good inspiration but further research will be needed for documentation.

Name Submission

Your local SCA Herald will be able to assist you with submission of a name for registration with the College of Arms.

Please note that the name form has a less-than-ideally presented question about the submitter's gender - the College of Arms has requested this be left blank.