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[Layla Khadijah al-Khayzuran] The middle element, being an epithet, was given an article to accord with Arabic naming practice. (Layla al-Khadijah al-Khayzuran, July, 1992, pg. 5)
[Dragon Seeker] Given that the epithet has been registered within the last year (James the Dragonseeker, Aug 91), it's hard to claim that this name exceeds the Society's current standards. The current case need not even be considered a fantasy epithet: both Dragon and Seeker appear to be period surnames. Dragon is documented in Reaney (DBS2 , p.107), and Seeker is a reasonable variant of Seker, Seaker, Seeger ( Black 717). (Dougal Dragon Seeker, July, 1992, pg. 12)
The byname was submitted as the Mischief Maker. According to the OED, in period idiom, one would not make mischief; one would either do mischief or be mischief. We have used the latter meaning here [by registering the Mischief], as closer to both period form and his desired meaning. It would be well, however, to tell the submitter that "mischief" was a much stronger term in period; "evil" would be closer to the same meaning today. (Morgan the Mischief, August, 1992, pg. 6)
[Guardian of the Night with a Mongolian first name] The epithet follows no period naming practice of which we are aware; on the surface, it seems so patently fantasy-oriented as to be unacceptable. At the very least, we need some evidence that Mongols styled themselves in this manner. (Jochi, Guardian of the Night, August, 1992, pg. 24)
[The Blacksword] The examples of weaponry epithets in Jönsjö generally lack the definite article [name registered without "the"]. (Gaufrid Kelson Blacksword, September, 1992, pg. 19)
[Anthony Iron Skull] The byname is a translation into our lingua franca of the Old Norse epithet járnhauss. Given analogous epithets in Latin (testifer, "iron head", 1297) and English (brasenhed, "brass head", 1434), this is not unreasonable even in translation. While [Ironskull] would be a more authentic construction, the above form is acceptable. (Anthony Iron Skull, January, 1993, pg. 3)
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[Flamehair] 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)
[Uodalrica] There was some question in the commentary about the validity of the given name. The original root, Uodalric, is masculine by virtue of its masculine deuterotheme -ric. It's possible that the Latinized form Uodalricus is simply be the default spelling for that time and place --- and therefore, unlike classical Latin names such as Julius/Julia, incapable of being feminized by changing -us to -a. The question cannot be definitively answered, on the basis of the evidence presented for this submission. However, the Society has traditionally been tolerant of feminized forms of period masculine names, whether such feminized names were documented or not; in part, this is an acknowledgement that women's names simply weren't recorded as often as men's names. As a general rule, if the masculine form of a name is documented to period, we assume the feminized form is acceptable. In this particular case, barring any direct evidence to the contrary, we will give the submitter the benefit of the doubt. (Uodalrica MacDonnell, September, 1993, pp. 5-6)
[The name] was submitted as Mielikki Kanteletar, with the claim that the byname was Finnish for "lady harper". Unfortunately, its meaning is closer to "female zither" --- not the musician, but the instrument itself. Kanteletar is also the name of a collection of epic Finnish poetry; as such, it's not necessarily acceptable, any more than John Iliad or Mary Elder Edda would be.
In Finnish, soittaja is both the noun meaning "musician" and a suffix meaning "-player", modifying the genitive of the instrument's name. Thus harppu (harp), piano (piano), and torvi (trumpet) become harpunsoittaja (harpist), pianonsoittaja (pianist), and torvensoittaja (trumpeter), respectively. (Examples are from Wuolle's Suomalais-Englantilainen Sanakirja.) [Name registered as Kantelensoittajatar] (Mielikki Kantelensoittajatar, July, 1992, pp. 2-3)
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