| Laurel: | Date: (year.month.date) | Precedent: |
| François la Flamme | 2004.03 | Drakon, rather than Dracon, is a Greek given name. However, no documentation was presented that it was also a reasonable byname construction in Greek. Barring that evidence, it cannot be registered as a byname.
The submission combines a 1st C A.D. name of unclear origin with a Greek name from the 7th C B.C. The LoI did not discuss the language spoken in Urhai/Edessa; Nebuly's and Siren's research suggests that it was probably Syriac but may have been Greek. If Syriac, the name clearly has two weirdnesses, one for mixing Syriac and Greek and a second for combining elements with over 600 years between them. As the College did not have the opportunity to consider the evidence for this lingual mix or for the language(s) spoken in Urhai/Edessa, this combination cannot be registered. [Ogar Dracon, 03/2004, R-Middle] |
| François la Flamme | 2004.01 | There was some controversy regarding the registerability of the given name Thalia. Thalia was registered with an English byname in 1995:
Additionally, De Felice Dizionario dei nomi Italiani (p. 160 s.n. Euterpe) indicates that the name Euterpe, also the name of a Muse, came into use in the Italian Renaissance. Based on this evidence, it is reasonable to give the submitter the benefit of the doubt that the name of the third Grace could have been used in Italy during the Renaissance. We do not know the form it would have taken, but the spelling Thalia is a reasonable Latinized form. Lacking evidence that any of the names of the Muses or Graces were used in England during the Renaissance, Thalia is not registerable as an English name. As English and Italian are registerable in the same name with one weirdness, this name is registerable. There was a question raised during commentary regarding the what exactly the documentation was that was referenced in the ruling:
A check of the submitter's file indicates that a commenter found the name Thalia as a 1st-2nd C A. D. Greek feminine given name in P. M. Fraser and E. Matthews, A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names (volume IIIA, p. 197 s.n. [theta-alpha-lamda-eta-iota-alpha]), which lists Thalia as a Latin form. [Thalia Ruggenall, 01/2004, A-Outlands] |
| François la Flamme | 2004.01 | This name is being returned for lack of documentation of the byname Apollina.
Apollos is documented as a masculine given name found in Bardas Xiphias's article "Common Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the 6th and 7th Centuries" (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/byzantine/early_byz_names.html). Bardas Xiphias's article "Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era" (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/byzantine/introduction.html) includes a section entitled "Structure of Aristocratic Personal Names in the 10th Through 15th Centuries" (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/byzantine/structures.html). In this section, he states that, "By the turn of the millennium, the inherited family name was the typical surname in the Roman Empire." He explains that when these family names were used in women's names, they took on a "feminized" form. It is in relation to these inherited family names that he explains that a family name ending in -os in a man's name would become -ina in a woman's name. The submitted byname Apollina was constructed by taking a 6th to 7th C masculine given name and applying to it patterns documented only for 10th to 15th C family name constructions. No evidence was provided and none was found to support such a combination. Therefore, lacking evidence that Apollina is a properly constructed feminine byname in period, it is not registerable. Additionally, the submitter's form included a request for authenticity for Byzantine language/culture. However, the LoI did not include this information. As a result, the College was not given the opportunity to adequately comment on this submission. We would remind submission heralds that proper summarization of forms, including changes allowed by the submitter and requests for authenticity, is required as part of the LoI. Improper summarization of a submission is cause for return of that submission. The College of Arms has a limited amount of time and all of us are volunteers. Asking the College to evaluate names based on incomplete or entirely missing data is both unfair to the College and a disservice to the submitter. The submitter also listed three alternate names on her form. However, as no documentation was presented to the College for any of these, they may not be considered. [Aelia Apollina, 01/2004, R-West] |
| François la Flamme | 2003.12 | The praenomen Odysseus was submitted using the justification that the Romans had a pattern of adopting an element from a famous leader's name. However, Odysseus is not a Latin name. Odysseus is the typical modern English spelling of the Greek name, which can be transliterated Odysseos. Metron Ariston adds:
Barring evidence that Greek names were used by Romans in this way, no spelling of Odysseos can be justified using this Roman naming pattern. In addition, Metron Ariston and others observed that the names of famous generals were not used as praenomina. Therefore, this pattern cannot be used to justify the use of an element in that position. Finally, no evidence was presented for the use of the names of legendary figures, such as the hero of the Odyssey. Barring evidence of such a pattern, Ulixes is not registerable in this position either. As the submitter does not allow major changes, we were unable to drop the problematic element Odysseus in order to register this name. [Odysseus Titinius Maximus, 12/2003, R-Calontir] |
| François la Flamme | 2003.09 | The submitter requested authenticity for Byzantine and allowed any changes. Lailiane was documented as a Greek feminine name found in "A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names", and Asenina was documented as the byname of the empress Eirene Asenina Cantacuzene (1347-1354). Metron Ariston provided information regarding the elements found in this name:
This name contains one weirdness for a temporal disparity of greater than 300 years between the dates for the given name Lailiane and the byname Asenina. [Lailiane Asenina, 09/2003, A-Meridies] |
| François la Flamme | 2003.09 | [Alternate name Maria Agrissa Sgourina] This name is being returned for lack of documentation of Agrissa as a plausible byname in period.
The byname Agrissa was documented as the feminine form of a masculine hypothetical byname derived from the word agrios 'wild.' This byname has several problems. First, there is no evidence that agrios was used as a byname. The College was able to document Agrios as a masculine given name, but not as a byname. Patronymic bynames were occasionally used in Byzantine Greek. However, lacking evidence as to the form that a patronymic byname formed from the masculine name Agrios would take or whether such a construction is temporally compatible with this name, the element Agrissa is not registerable. This submission justified Agrissa by referencing bynames that describe aspects of a person's character. However, the examples provided show bynames meaning 'of good character' and 'peaceful', which are not sufficiently similar to 'wild' to support a byname meaning 'wild'. In addition, the element Agrissa is incorrectly formed. The feminine form of the adjective agrios is agrina, and a byname formed from would be expected to take the same form. The example that the submitter used to form Agrissa was an irregular form and would not apply to a feminine form of the word agrios. As the submitter does not allow major changes, we were not able to drop the element Agrissa in order to register the name. [Màiri ni Raghallaigh, 09/2003 LoAR, R-Æthelmearc] |
| François la Flamme | 2003.06 | Submitted as Serena Iustina Bryenrissa, the submitter requested authenticity for 6th to 11th C Roman-Byzantine and allowed any changes. Serena was documented only from a Web site of dubious quality and there is some doubt that this name was actually used by Romans. Metron Ariston explains:
No documentation was presented and none was found to support two given names in Byzantine names. Therefore we have dropped Serena, which is dubious for the submitter's desired time and culture, and corrected the byname in order to register this name. [Iustina Bryennissa, 06/2003 LoAR, A-Trimaris] |
| François la Flamme | 2003.02 | Submitted as Phoebe apo Korinthos, this name was intended to mean 'Phoebe of/from Corinth'.
Phoebe is a modern English rendering of the Classical Greek name [phi-omicron-iota-beta-eta], which is transliterated as Phoíbë. Examples of this Classical Greek name found before A.D. 600 are found at P. M. Fraser and E. Matthews, "The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names" (http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/). Forms of this name came into use in late period England as shown in J. W. Garrett-Pegge, A Transcript of the First Volume, 1538-1636, of the Parish Register of Chesham, Buckingham County, which dates Phebe to 1590 (p. 66) and Phebee to 1583 (p. 52). Lacking evidence to support combining an English given name with a Classical Greek byname, this combination is not registerable. As the submitter allows any changes, we have changed the given name to the Classical Greek Phoíbë in order to register this name. The phrase apo Korinthos is not grammatically correct. Korinthos is in the nominative case. When used with apo, it needs to be in the genitive case. As Korinthou is the genitive form of Korinthos, apo Korinthou is the grammatically correct form of this phrase. However, there is a larger problem with this byname. No evidence was found that a construction such as apo Korinthou 'from Corinth' would have been used as a descriptive byname in Greek. We have changed this byname to Korínthia [Kappa omicron rho {iota'} nu theta iota alpha], meaning '[the] Corinthian', to follow documented Greek byname construction in order to register this name. [Phoíbë Korínthia, 02/2003 LoAR, A-Calontir] |
| François la Flamme | 2003.02 | Submitted as Martinus Draco Byzantios, the submission form notes that his intended culture was 5th C Eastern Roman but that he did not request authenticity. Metron Ariston provided information regarding a form of this name appropriate for the submitter's desired time and culture:
Examining the photocopied page from Mango provided by the submitter, it is indeed likely that Byzantios is a typographical error for Byzantinos. As the submitter did not request authenticity, we have made the minimum changes necessary in order to register this name and simply corrected the spelling of Byzantinos. A fully Latin form of this name would be Martinus Draco Byzantinus. A fully Greek form of this name would be Martinos Drakon Byzantinos. [Martinus Draco Byzantinos, 02/2003 LoAR, A-Calontir] |
| François la Flamme | 2003.01 | Diana is the name of an ancient Roman goddess. No documentation was presented and none was found that Diana was used as a Roman name except for this goddess. Lacking evidence that it was used as a given name for humans in the Roman period, it is not registerable as a Roman name. The only evidence presented of Diana used by humans in period is from Withycombe (p. 40-41, s.n. Diana), which lists Diana Luttrell as being born in 1580. So we have evidence of Diana as a name used in late 16th C English. Spartene was submitted as the feminine form of the masculine byname Spartenos, which is dated to 1246 in Bardas Xiphias's article "Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era" (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/byzantine/family-names.html).
Therefore, the submitted name mixes an English given name dated to 1580 with a Byzantine Greek byname appropriate for 1246. Because these elements are dated more than 300 years apart, this name has a weirdness for temporal disparity. No evidence was presented that England and the Byzantine Empire had significant contact in period. Lacking such evidence, a name mixing English and Byzantine Greek is not registerable. Were such evidence found, this lingual mix would be a weirdness, and this name would have two weirdnesses, one for temporal disparity and one for the lingual mix. And so, having two weirdnesses, this name would still have to be returned. [Diana Spartene, 01/2003 LoAR, R-Calontir] |
| François la Flamme | 2002.12 | The submitter requested authenticity for 9th to 12th C Greece and allowed all changes. No documentation was provided and none was found for Thomapocles as a given name. The LoI documented Thoimachos from "Lexicon of Greek Personal Names (Vol IIIA Peloponese, /Greece; sic Magna Graecia)", and asserted that it was a "[c]lose approximation by sound" of the submitted Thomapocles. In fact, the pronunciations of Thomapocles and Thoimachos are remarkably different. Therefore, this name cannot be registered. In addition, the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names is not included in the Administrative Handbook under "Appendix H - Name Books That Do Not Require Photocopies to Laurel". As photocopies were not provided for this source, this documentation can not be considered. Lacking a documented given name in this submission, we must return this name. [Thomapocles Naupegos, 12/2002, R-Meridies] |
| François la Flamme | 2002.11 | Submitted as Jovian Skleros, no documentation was presented for Jovian, only for Iovinus, which is listed as a masculine given name in Bardas Xiphias's article "Common Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the 6th and 7th Centuries" (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/byzantine/early_byz_names.html). Metron Ariston found documentation for Jovianus:
As Jovianus is closer to the submitted Jovian than Iovinus, we have changed the given name to Jovianus in order to register this name. [Jovianus Skleros, 11/2002, A-Ansteorra] |
| François la Flamme | 2002.09 | Submitted as Kassandra Aiantos, the byname Aiantos was intended to mean 'daughter of Ajax'. The submitter requested authenticity for "1200's Greek". Metron Ariston found information regarding this byname:
As the first byname (Aiantide) suggested by Metron Ariston indicates a family claiming descent from Ajax, it is the more appropriate of these two bynames given the submitter's desired meaning of 'daughter of Ajax'. [Kassandra Aiantide, 09/2002 LoAR, A-East] |
| François la Flamme | 2002.07 | Submitted as Justinos Tekton, the submitter requested authenticity for Byzantine. Iustinos is a Latin form and Justin is an English form of this given name. As Latin does not include a J, the submitted Justinos is not a valid variant of the documented Iustinos. We have changed the given name to this form in order to register this name. [Iustinos Tekton, 07/2002, A-Middle] |
| François la Flamme | 2002.07 | The LoI stated that "The submittor desires a masculine 14th-15th century 'Byzantine' (Greek?) name. He will accept minor changes only, but will allow Rossos to be dropped and the Vigilant to be translated to it's Greek equivalent if either or both of these changes are necessary for registration." The documentation provided for the Vigilant in the LoI was
Metron Ariston found a descriptive byname that can plausibly have the Lingua Anglica form the Vigilant:
Therefore, Dareios Rossos the Vigilant is registerable since the Vigilant is a Lingua Anglica rendering of Promethes. Dareios Rossos Promethes may be an authentic form of this name. However, given the few resources available for Byzantine Greek, we were unable to confirm that a person would be referred to by two descriptive bynames simultaneously in a written name. Since there are so few resources currently available, we are giving the double descriptive byname the benefit of the doubt at this time. Future research may confirm or refute this construction. As the submitter did not allow major changes (except as noted for registerability), we did not change this name to a fully Greek form. [Dareios Rossos the Vigilant, 07/2002, A-Lochac] |
| François la Flamme | 2002.06 | Submitted as Ariadne Leonida, the byname was intended to mean 'lion-like'. Kingdom felt that the byname might also be plausible as a patronymic based on the masculine given name Leonidas. However, the submitted form of the byname was not quite correct for either a descriptive meaning 'lion-like' or a patronymic based on Leonidas. Metron Ariston provided a detailed explanation of the grammar issues in this name. In summary, this name would be correct as Ariadne Leonidou, using a patronymic byname based on Leonidas, or as Ariadne Leontodes, using a descriptive byname meaning 'lion-like'. Electrum shared this information with the submitter and reported that the submitter prefers Ariadne Leontodes. We have made this change. [Ariadne Leontodes, 06/2002, A-An Tir] |
| François la Flamme | 2002.05 | This name was originally submitted as Phoebus Alexander Craythorne. Lacking solid documentation for Phoebus as a given name, it was dropped at kingdom. The documentation provided by the submitter for Phoebus was from Weidenham, Male Christian Names, which lists Phoebus as an Antiochan martyr. The problem is that Phoebus was a descriptive byname. Lacking firm evidence that it was this martyr's given name, we must assume it was his byname. Metron Ariston explains:
Lacking documentation of the existence of Phoebus as a given name in period, it is not registerable as a given name. [Alexander Craythorne, 05/2002, A-Middle] |
| François la Flamme | 2002.04 | The submitter requested authenticity for 14th C Byzantine. The College was unable to find a Byzantine form of the byname of Varna, though examples of Byzantine locative bynames were found. Maridonna Benvenuti's article "14th Century Names of Lay Proprietors in the Themes of Thessaloniki and Strymon" (http://www.maridonna.com/onomastics/lay.htm) dates the names Demetrios Doukopoulos to 1300 and Petros Doukopoulos to 1324 and 1327. In these names, -poulos indicates a Peloponnese person. Since examples of locative bynames were found, of Varna may be considered to be a Lingua Anglica translation of the corresponding Byzantine locative byname. [Milica of Varna, 04/2002, A-Middle] |
| François la Flamme | 2001.10 | Submitted as Diamiana bint al-Katib, no support was found for the spelling Diamiana. We have therefore changed it to a documented spelling.
The mix of a 4th C Coptic given name with an Arabic byname that could date from no earlier than the 7th C is a weirdness. [Damiana bint al-Katib, 10/01, A-Outlands] |
| François la Flamme | 2001.08 | The byname the Butcher is registerable in this instance via the lingua Anglica allowance. The Greek form of this name (transliterated) would be Xenos Mageiros. [Xenos the Butcher, 08/01, A-Ansteorra] |
| Jaelle of Armida | 1997.06 | Evyenios was stated in the letter of intent to be "a phonetic transcription of the name from the Greek, not a transliteration." Given that there was a very strong tradition of how one rendered Greek words into the Roman alphabet in period, it is not reasonable to register something that does not fall within that tradition. Even today, Greek gamma is rendered in ordinary use as "g", in spite of the pronunciation. In a medieval context the likeliest possibilities would seem to be writing the name in Greek, which we would normally represent by a transliteration, or Latinizing it to Eugenius filius Athanasii or the like. [The name was returned.] (Evyenios Athanasiou, 6/97 p. 12) |
| Da'ud ibn Auda (2nd tenure, 2nd year) | 1995.09 | [registering the byname Monomakh] The byname does not seem to be presumptuous. Deriving from Greek monomakhéô `to fight in single combat', monomákhos `fighting in single combat' appears to be a reasonable byname for a fighter. It was used by the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachus and by his grandson, the Kievan prince Vladimir II Monomakh, but it does not seem to have been hereditary or even used by anyone else in either line. Vladimir says in his Testament that he was given the baptismal name Vasili by his grandfather Yaroslav `but was commonly known by [his] Russian name Vladimir, and surnamed Monomakh by [his] beloved father and mother'; we suspect that this was to honor his other grandfather, Constantine. (Hrothger Monomakh, 9/95 p. 18) |
| Da'ud ibn Auda (2nd tenure, 2nd year) | 1995.09 | According to the LoI, the submitter chose a given name from Classical Greek mythology to go with her English Renaissance persona. The An Tir CoH questions the SCA folk wisdom that Classical/Mythological names were used in England during the Renaissance and asks for a ruling on their `blanket' acceptability in that setting. We have found considerable evidence for 16th century English use of names of Classical provenance, but few of them are primarily mythological. We doubt that a case can be made for unqualified acceptability of Classical names; certainly no one has made one. We will therefore continue to consider such names on their individual merits; in the present instance we have found enough support to give the name the benefit of the doubt.
In Greek mythology Thalia `bloom; good cheer, wealth, plenty' was the Muse of comedy and one of the three Graces; the other two Graces were Euphrosyne `cheerfulness, mirth, merriment' and Aglaia `splendor, beauty, brightness'. Evidence for period use of the names of the Muses is slight, but Praerie's Dictionary of Period Russian Names cites Evfrosin 1481 and a 4th century martyr Aglaii, whose names are clearly masculine forms of the names of the other two Graces. De Felice mentions several saints Eufrosina and indicates that Aglaia was used during the Italian Renaissance, while Withycombe notes a legendary saint Aglaia. Thus, the names of at least two of the three Graces were in use in Europe toward the end of our period; and since 16th century England seems to have been relatively open to new names of Classical origin, we are willing to grant the possibility that the remaining name, Thalia, might have been used then. (We have also taken into account the fact that it is clearly compatible with English phonetic patterns.) (Talan Gwynek, LoAR September 1995, p. 2) |
| Da'ud ibn Auda (2nd tenure, 2nd year) | 1995.06 | Submitted as Dionysos [N], the documentable name is Dionysios ("consecrated to Dionysos"); the submitted form was only used as the name of the God. We have substituted the documented form here. [It seems, after all, to make more than an iota's worth of difference. (Da'ud ibn Auda, LoAR June 1995, p. 13) |
| Da'ud ibn Auda (2nd tenure, 1st year) | 1994.03 | [Registering Aodh Marland.] Submitted as Aodh Adendra Marland, the very lengthy appeal made interesting reading. However, it was not shown that Greek bynames were used in the Gaelic countries (although the point was made for Latin bynames). Nor was it shown that "tree-less" falls into any existing pattern of classical bynames used in the Middle Ages. As a consequence we have dropped the problematic element in order to register the name. [3/94, p.3] |
| Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme | 1993.05 | We have in the past returned such epithets as Fyrlocc, on the grounds that they didn't follow known period models for English bynames. However, given the recent documentation of Pyrsokomos "flame-hair" as a valid Greek epithet, we are now inclined to permit its lingua franca translation -- but only for names where the original Greek epithet would be acceptable. The submitter will have to demonstrate regular period interaction between Ireland and Greece before this name meets that criterion -- or else show the construction follows period English models. (Fiona Flamehair, May, 1993, pg. 14) |
| Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme | 1992.09 | Rather to our surprise, the Classic Greek for "fire hair" really is the idiom for a redhead (Danielis Pyrsokomos, September, 1992, pg. 31) |
| Alisoun MacCoul of Elphane | 1990.02 | [Casia Thessalonica apo Constantinopolios] The name was submitted as Casia Thessalonica apo Constantinopolis. Since the submittor's stated intent was to have a grammatical Greek form, we have modified the place name to produce an acceptable koine form such as might have appeared on an inscription of the late Hellenistic or early Byzantine era. On the whole, this is an acceptable early Byzantine name, although it is one which has some unusual features. Whether or not the name of Alexander the Great's sister actually was "Thessalonica" is irrelevant (the name means "Thessalian victory" and may actually allude to the victories of Philip of Macedon in Thessaly): by the late Roman period the adjective "Thessalonicus" would be understood to designate an inhabitant of the city of Thessalonica (classical Therma, modern Saloniki). The use of "apo Constantinopolios" with this epithet of place is a bit more unusual for two reasons. First, it would generally be used to indicate where someone was born so that the name implies some sort of persona story involving temporary parental trips from Thessalonica to Constantinople during which the little girl was born and after which the family returned home (very Plautine!). It is also unusual because, while classical Greek (and the more purist twentieth�century Greeks) used the genitive form used above with the preposition "apo", modern Demotic Greek, which is the direct outgrowth of Byzantine popular speech collapsed the cases into a few all�purpose forms, using the accusative with "apo" in most cases. This process of collapse chronologically paralleled the progress from Latin to the modern Romance languages so this name form would be presumed to be from a relatively early period (e.g. around the Iconoclastic Era). |
| Baldwin of Erebor | 1984.08.28 | The consensus was that the name Arachne, which appears to be associated uniquely with the character from Greek mythology, should not be used in conjunction with spiders. [BoE, 28 Aug 84, p.3] |
| Karina of the Far West | 1979.06.30 | She cannot use "of Epsilon" as this is a letter of the Greek alphabet and NOT a place name. (KFW, 30 Jun 79 [25], p. 33) |
| Karina of the Far West | 1976.01.30 | [N. Basiliskus.] You cannot be "the Basilisk." (The term is a Greek adjective meaning "resembling a king", which was later applied to a nonhuman monster.) (KFW, 30 Jun 79 [25], p. 58) |