Copyright © 1995 - Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
The 1st Tenure of Da'ud Ibn Auda (2nd year)
[<Hebrew female given name> bint <Hebrew man's name> <Arabic epithet>] "Period instances of Jews in Muslim Spain combining Hebrew names with the Arabic patronymic give credence to this form." (LoAR 9/91 p.7).
[of Coeur Cri] "We have deleted the village name because no evidence was presented that French place names were ever formed in this manner." (LoAR 7/91 p.5).
[of Wyvernsreach] "The place name Drakelow in Ekwall lends credence to the locative." (LoAR 7/91 p.7).
[Stormbrand] "This combination of words in English appears to have no real meaning." (LoAR 7/91 p.9).
[le Fey] "The appeal of this name has sufficiently documented the use of le Fey as a surname by people well within Period. The surname le Fey is acceptable for registration provided there are no other allusions to elves or faerie in the name or armory." (LoAR 7/91 p.9).
"Submitted as <name> Griffith of Gwynedd, we have dropped the problematic locative. As submitted the name appears to be a claim of descent from Gruffudd, King of Gwynedd to 1137. Rule V.5 disallows any such claim." (LoAR 7/91 p.15).
"Submitted as <name> Braumeister von <place>, we have modified the name to drop the problematical Braumeister. 'Occupation' of 'Placename' name construction has for some years been held to be returnable." (LoAR 7/91 p.16).
[<name> Winterskye] "Conflict with <name> of Skye... because of the way that the Rules for Submission are worded. The only consistent interpretation that we could make was to consider Winterskye to be the addition of an adjective to the noun Skye (or sky)." (LoAR 7/91 p.24).
[de Wolfe] "Dauzat, p.201, notes Dewolf as a Flemish name, giving credence to this formation." (LoAR 8/91 p.2).
[Durmast] "Although the citation for Durmast dates only as far back as 1791, Lord Dragon makes a good case for it as a constructed name from period elements." (LoAR 8/91 p.5).
[Baumaris] "Several commenters noted that they could only find Beaumaris, but the submitter's photocopied documentation clearly has Baumaris." (LoAR 8/91 p.9).
[the Runt] "While the sense of 'runt' probably intended by the client is clearly post-Period, the meaning dated to 1614 of 'an ignorant, uncouth, or uncultivated person' falls within our 'grey area'." (LoAR 8/91 p.12).
"CuáRuadh Keep does not appear to follow the pattern of using an anglicized Irish name in an English style place name (such would much more likely be something akin to Conroe Keep)." (LoAR 8/91 p.17).
"The meaning for Mordacious in the OED is dated to 1650 which is at the outer limits of our 'grey area'. Could you interest the submitter in the documentably Period term 'Mordant'?" [The name was returned primarily for administrative reasons.] (LoAR 8/91 p.19).
[Wovenwood] "No documentation was presented to show that it was constructed on a Period pattern per RfS II.2." (LoAR 8/91 p.20).
"The problem is that 'Newest South Wales' [the translation of the submitted place] presupposes a 'New South Wales', which is a provably post-period place." (LoAR 8/91 p.24).
"While the English term 'iceberg' is clearly post-Period, given the large number of cognates in so many northern European languages we feel that the name is probably acceptable." (LoAR 9/91 p.10).
[de Winterhawke] "The locative is highly improbable. Dropping the particle 'de' would probably be sufficient to answer the problem." (LoAR 9/91 p.19).
[Runamagi, meaning "Rune-belly"] "A pattern of usage of similar epithets in Norse, particularly Hrísmagi ('brushwood stomach'), lends credence to this formation. It was pointed out, however, that Orramagi ('scarbelly') would have been much more likely." (LoAR 10/91 p.1).
[Avalon] "Although Master Wilhelm when he was Laurel disallowed the use of Avalon as a place from which humans could be, Lady Harpy notes the French town of Avallon in Stephens p.671, which would appear to make this acceptable." (LoAR 10/91 p.5).
[Eisfalke] "The period name Eisvogel (1418) lends credence to the byname here."[the names translate to ice-falcon and ice-bird] (LoAR 10/91 p.5).
"By the submitter's own documentation Kennaquhair is 'Scottish for a place which does not exist; a name for some imaginary place.' This does not appear to be a place from which a person could be." (LoaR 10/91 p.10).
[Willmark] "Several commenters noted that 'dweller at the well border' did not appear to make much sense. However, Ekwall notes that 'well' also means 'spring' or 'stream', making the locative reasonable." (LoAR 10/91 p.12).
[Longeye] "Lord Badger has been able to find support for the byname as a placename. Old English places that ended in 'eg' or 'haeg' ('island') had their spelling changed over the years to 'ey'. Thus, as <name> from 'Long Island' (Longeye), this name becomes quite reasonable." (LoAR 10/91 p.13).
[of Snow Roses] "The byname is not a reasonable locative. As Lord Badger noted, while each of the two parts of the byname were used in period, they were not used in the same kinds of bynames. To be used in a period manner, snow would have to be a reasonable descriptive adjective to apply to roses. Barring documentation of such a use in period, this must be returned." (LoAR 10/91 p.17).
"No evidence whatsoever was presented to demonstrate that Stoirm (meaning 'storm') is a reasonable epithet. We need evidence that Stoirm is similar to other Gaelic epithets before we can register this." (LoAR 10/91 p.18).
[Richard the Chicken-Hearted] "This is not only a joke name, but a parody of Richard the Lion-Hearted. As was the case with Decrease Mather (a parody of Increase Mather), which was returned on the LoAR of May 12, 1985, this name 'alludes strongly enough to the historical character to constitute infringement.' " (LoAR 10/91 p.18).
[Strongfire] "No one was able to show that fires were ever considered to be 'strong': large, hot, etc., yes, but not 'strong' in any way." (LoAR 10/91 p.20).
[Starlake] "Given the existence of Starr as a surname in period (Reaney's dbs p.332), a locative based on 'Starr's lake' makes the locative much more plausible." (LoAR 11/91 p.4).
[Willowind Manor] "We have also dropped the 'coined place name'. We need some kind of documentation that Willowind is formed in a period manner or otherwise based in period practice." (LoAR 11/91 p.14).
[<Name> of <place>shire] "Conflict with <name> of <place>. Addition of the designator 'shire' is not sufficient." (LoAR 11/91 p.18).
[Vitki] "The byname is disallowed under RFS VI.2, Names Claiming Powers. You may not style yourself 'the wizard' in the Society." (LoAR 11/91 p.18).
"No documentation at all was submitted to demonstrate that Willowspoon makes sense as an occupational byname or that it is formed in a period manner or follows period name construction practices, as required by RfS II.3." [The name was returned for this reason] (LoAR 11/91 p.23).
"'The Oxhandler' appears a little unlikely as a period epithet, but is not entirely implausible. However, Oxeman, Oxhirde, and Oxdrover are all documented period bynames which would serve the client better." [The epithet was registered as submitted] (LoAR 12/91 p.1).
"The citation in Dauzat for 'Loch' by itself lends credence to the use of Loch with the article 'de'." (LoAR 12/91 p.5).
[de Heather] "Citations in Reaney (Dictionary of British Surnames) of de Brome, de Birches, and de Ayssh, all lend credence to this byname." (LoAR 12/91 p.11).
[<name> Lietuvos, meaning <name> the Lithuanian>] "While prior Laurel precedent has returned the form '{Name} the {Nationality}', we do not find this presumptuous of the ruler of the country in the same way or to the same degree that, say, '{Name} of {Nation}' would. Hence, we do not find that this name conflicts with <name>, King of Lithuania." (LoAR 12/91 p.12).
[the Stonewise] "We have modified the name to drop the questionable byname. No documentation was presented for either this epithet or for a pattern of similar epithets." (LoAR 12/91 p.14).
[of the Mist] "Barring documentation for a place named 'the Mist', this byname is not a reasonable locative." (LoAR 12/91 p.16).
"While 'Sea' is a reasonable byname element, there is nothing given in the LoI to indicate that 'Seawalker' is reasonable or formed in a Period manner. Would the client consider the byname 'Gobythesea', formed in the manner of Period exemplars found in reaney's origins, p.289?" [the epithet was returned] (LoAR 12/91 p.18).
"Löwenstein and Löwenthal do not appear to be sufficient precedent for allowing Löwenstahl. 'Lion-rock' and 'Lion-valley' are clearly toponymics; 'Lion-steel' is not." (LoAR 12/91 p.19).
[Asbjarnarson] "Submitted as... Asbjornson. The name has been modified to correct the grammar of the patronym. Laurel is hesitant to extend the allowance made for Bjornsson to include compound names without more period evidence for support." [ overruled LoAR 3/92 p.4] (LoAR 1/92 p.5).
[Silverswan] "Given the documented bynames Whitehors, Blaklamb, Grelamb, Gragris, and Whitecou (this last meaning grey swan), we believe that a pattern of such names has been shown to be established." (LoAR 1/92 p.9).
[<Norse name> "the Runesayer"] "The name has been modified to drop the intrusively modern epithet. 'The Runesayer' is not a Norse expression nor does it appear to be formed on a Period exemplar. Runes are not something that needed 'saying,' and the byname appears to be a modern fantasy idiom." (LoAR 2/92 p.1).
[Nunneschild] "Lord Dragon has documented this kind of formation for the byname." (LoAR 2/92 p.3).
[The Foehammer] "The name has been modified to drop the epithet. Foehammer is not formed in the same pattern as the period names 'Bloodaxe' or 'Longsword.' Such epithets were normally formed along fairly literal lines; he carries a 'bloody (or blooded) axe', or carries a 'long sword.' This byname does not follow that pattern." (LoAR 2/92 p.7).
[de la Mañana] "The name has been modified to remove the unlikely epithet. 'Of the morning' is not a reasonable epithet in any language." (LoAR 2/92 p.16).
"While there was some concern that the byname 'de Lorraine' could be considered presumptuous, the citation in Reaney of 'de Lorreyne' (dated 1333) lends support to the belief that the locative was not restricted solely to members of the Ducal House of Lorraine." (LoAR 3/92 p.3).
"Lord Treblerose... documented Norse patronymics in period using the genitive 's' as well as their more 'correct' genitive forms. Thus Bjarnisson is as acceptable as the technically more correct Bjarnasson." [overruling LoAR 1/92 p. 5] (LoAR 3/92 p.4).
"The documented 'atte Raven' from Reaney's dictionary of British Surnames does not necessarily lend support to 'de Raven' [The 'de' was dropped from the name] (LoAR 3/92 p.6).
[<given name> bena Cato, bena meant to be Irish for "wife of"] "The byname is improperly constructed. It contains mixed languages that do not appear to have combined this way in period. (Also, according to Lord Dragon the particle should be 'ben' rather than 'bena'.)" (LoAR 3/92 p.12).
[Stormcrow] "No justification or period precedent was included in the documentation for combining two surnames in this manner. (Smith and Jones appear in Reaney's dictionary of British Surnames, too, but we would not then register Jonesmith.) (LoAR 3/92 p.12).
[the Dragoon] "The name has been modified to drop the post-Period byname. (LoAR 4/92 p.1)
"Sunhair is not a period style epithet, in that it does not appear to be formed in a Period manner. The closest that anyone could find for a similar epithet is Sherlock." (LoAR 4/92 p.19)
"'Darkmoon' as an epithet style byname is much more likely than 'of Darkmoon' as a locative byname." [The "of" was dropped from the name] (LoAR 5/92 p.12).
"The biggest problem, however, is the combination of a Merlin-variant name with 'of the oak' in any language is an excessive reference to the Merlin of Arthurian legend." (LoAR 5/92 p.21).
"'Fire-lock' does not appear to be an epithetical name constructed on Period patterns of naming. Most descriptive epithets are much more literal, such as Dustiberd. As noted by one commenter, 'fire-hair' would appear to describe a cooking accident much more than a hair color." (LoAR 5/92 p.21).
"The Schwarzwald in German is not a generic 'black wood', but is a specific and very well known place and requires the article. If we might suggest he could change the article von to vom, a contraction of von dem; a change we would have made had he allowed changes." (LoAR 6/92 p.19).
[Ancient Egyptian name] "While a number of commenters argued that ancient Egypt (and ancient Egyptian names) is outside the scope of the Society, unless and until the Board of Directors places an early cutoff date, we must continue to consider names such as this one legitimate submissions." (LoAR 5/92 p.22).
"There was much discussion [on a particular submission] regarding the propriety of continuing the registration of Elvish names of any kind. Mistress Alisoun, shortly before stepping down as Laurel, expanded the allowance of Elvish from Sindarin only to include Quenya as well. The overwhelming majority of recent commentary on this issue by the College, however, was in favor of banning the registration of any Elvish names in the future. I am therefore proposing such a ban, to become effective as of the February, 1992 Laurel meeting. Unless a significant number of the members of the College (or the Society as a whole) feel differently, and write to tell me about it, on and after that date we will no longer register Elvish names." (CL 11/12/91 p.2).
"Documentation provided by Lords Habicht and Badger indicate that the use of 'aus' is as acceptable as the more common 'von'." (LoAR 11/91 p.13).
"While Brandon is a surname in period, it is also a documented variant spelling of Brendan (also, Brandan), so this spelling is allowable in a given name." (LoAR 7/91 p.1).
"Lady...Harpy presented evidence that Ceidrych is probably a reasonable compounded name." (LoAR 7/91 p.7).
"Glyn appears to be a placename and a surname in period, but not a given name. We will need evidence of its use as a given name in period before we can register it." (LoAR 7/91 p.24).
[Sean <surname>] "Conflict with Shauna <surname>." (LoAR 7/91 p.24).
[Colleen <name>] "The name as submitted seems sufficiently different from that of Sir Colin <name>." (LoAR 8/91 p.1)
[Irwyn] "Reaney's dictionary of British Surnames notes Irwine as a given name in 1185. This form should be acceptable." (LoAR 8/91 p.2).
[Tyrell] "The submitter's documentation from Bardsley states 'there can be no doubt as to the personal or baptismal origin of the surname.' " (LoAR 8/91 p.4).
[Barrett] "It may be that not every name in Withycombe is documented as well as it should be as a given name in Period. The given here is one example of that. Lord Laurel is, however, extremely reluctant to start going through all of our standard names sources making lists of exceptions, which lists will never be as widely distributed as the source books are. (Look at the trouble we have getting people to stop using entire books, like Kolatch, and it might give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem as I see it.)" [Note: this decision does not necessarily seem compatible with current or past precedent: note the decision on 'Tirion' on the LoAr of 8/91 p.16] (LoAR 8/91 p.7).
"Though there was some question regarding the construction of Tanarian, several commenters noted that 'Arian' is found (as a protheme) in Welsh, and that this construction did not seem unreasonable." (LoAR 8/91 p.13).
The lack of a date in the citation in Gruffudd and the fact that Tirion is documented as a placename in Period in celtic Remains, combined with the lack of any evidence of Tir- as an element in compound names forces us to request Period documentation of Tirion as a given before we can register it." (LoAR 8/91 p.16).
Cairenn as spelled here appears to be a unique name, that of the mother of Niall of the Nine Hostages." (LoAR 8/91 p.17).
[Caelainn <name>] "The bulk of the commentary favored registration of this name as being sufficiently different from Caitilin <name>. Lord Laurel agrees that if correctly pronounced the two names are indeed sufficiently different. The problem, however, is the consistent mispronounciation of names in the SCA, not just by heralds... but by the submitters themselves. Given the overwhelming support of the commenters in the College, I am registering this in spite of my personal qualms about how each submitter (and the heralds in their respective areas) is pronouncing each name." (LoAR 9/91 p.12).
[Nanette] "Several commenters questioned whether or not the given is a period name. Barring strong evidence that it is not, we felt it best to give the submitter the benefit of the doubt." (LoAR 10/91 p.1).
"Rowen is a later form of the old English name Hrodwen, and is perfectly acceptable as such." (LoAR 10/91 p.2).
[Katriona] "Conflict with Caiterina... if given proper Gaelic pronunciations, this conflicts under the rules." (LoAR 10/91 p.16).
[Just <given name>] "Lord Dragon has found evidence from period for the given name Justus and Juste, as well as <given name> as a surname, so this name can be justified as a perfectly legitimate construction." (LoAR 11/91 p.3).
[Kelwin] "Lady Harpy suggests a logical derivation from the Anglo-Saxon Ceolwine." (LoAR 11/91 p.5).
"Lorraine is the submitter's legal given name. Especially given the modern-day use of Lorraine as a feminine given name, I am extremely hesitant to refuse to register it, even given the region Lorraine's position in the history of Europe (which probably helped lead to its use as a personal name). Lorraine does not seem nearly so obtrusive a usage as, say, 'England' or 'Italia' would." (LoAR 11/91 p.7).
"Lynnea is a post-period Swedish name from the surname Linnæus." [The name was returned for this reason] (LoAR 11/91 p.18).
"RFS II.4 states that 'elements of the submitter's legal name may be used as the corresponding part of the Society name if such elements are not excessively obtrusive and do not violate other sections of these rules.' Unfortunately, Deyrni is 'excessively obtrusive', owing at least in part to the great popularity of Kathrine Kurtz's Deryni series. (That she is well known as a Countess in the SCA doesn't help, either). Nearly every commenter who had anything to say about this name noted the problem of reading the given as 'Deryni'." (LoAR 11/91 p.19).
"Hamish is not a name. It is a phonetic rendering of the Gaelic name Seumas in the vocative case, and only became misconsidered a given name by mistake by non-Gaelic speakers in post-period times. It is no more a given than would be the possessive James'. If the submitter would consider the given Seumas, this would work." (LoAR 11/91 p.19).
[Pryddwyn] "The Welsh experts in the College find this dithematic name to be highly unlikely. Even were it a likely combination, it would most likely be Prytddwyn. Additionally, it remains too close in appearance to the name of King Arthur's boat, which has previously been disallowed." (LoAR 11/91 p.22).
"Additional evidence for the deterotheme -far was found in Searle, lending more support for the construction Balfar." (LoAR 12/91 p.6).
[Luna] "The LoI established 'a strong pattern of use of a class of words {in this case the names of Roman deities} as given names' (see RfS II.3.b). Based on this pattern we believe Luna to be acceptable. While the use of the decrescent with the given name is allusive, we do not believe that the name and charge combination is so excessively allusive as to require return." (LoAR 12/91 p.7).
[Bres] "Though O'Corráine and Maguire note that Bres 'is always borne by mythological or legendary characters in Irish literature', Dauzat cites it as a popular form of St. Brictius." (LoAR 12/91 p.12).
[Cwenhere] "The given mixes a feminine prototheme with a masculine deterotheme. Such a construction is impossible by the rules by which Old English names were constructed." (LoAR 12/91 p.16).
[Ffiona] "Given the acceptance (admittedly, on a special basis) of Fiona, we did not feel that we could reasonably disallow this variant." (LoAR 2/92 p.8)
[Sapphira] "As I have been loath to do with Withycombe and other of our 'standard' names sources, I do not wish to start going through the Bible and making lists of exceptions to the names documented therefrom. Yes, as a number of commenters noted, the name Sapphira has sufficient negative connotations in the Bible itself that it is unlikely to have been used as a name in Period. The fact remains, however, that it was in the 'pool' of available Biblical names, and it should remain available to members of the SCA until and unless proven 'guilty' of sufficient impossibility or sufficient offense to warrant banning it." (LoAR 2/92 p.10).
[Cwenwyn] "Given the many attestations of 'Cwen' both alone and as a protheme in Period, I believe that we should give it the same allowance that we do the name Regina: so long as it is not used in a name in such a way as to imply landedness, it will be acceptable for registration." (LoAR 2/92 p.12).
"Dona is not the same as the title Doña, and therefore is not subject to restriction as a title." (LoAR 2/92 p.15).
[Russell] "Lady Ensign supplied documentation for Russell as a given name in Period." (LoAR 2/92 p.17).
[Aradia] "The name has been modified to drop the problematical Aradia, which appears to be a unique name." (LoAR 3/92 p.9).
"Lempriére shows Amalthea as the daughter of Melissus, King of Crete. Given this documentation (of a human bearing the name), we believe Amalthea to be registerable in the SCA." (LoAR 4/92 p.6)
[Kiera] "Given the presence of Saint Kiara circa 680 from Ireland, the spelling Kiera seems a reasonable and allowable variant." (LoAR 4/92 p.11).
[Beaune] "Several commenters questioned whether or not Beaune can be used as a given name here; it appears in this spelling as a given name in the submitter's documentation." (LOAR 5/92 p.3)
[Styvyn] "Lord Dragon found some documentation in both middle and late period England which tends to support the client's requested spelling of the given name." (LoAR 5/92 p.19).
"The biggest problem, however, is the combination of a Merlin-variant name with 'of the oak' in any language is an excessive reference to the Merlin of Arthurian legend." (LoAR 5/92 p.21).
[Jaspyr] "The name has been modified to match the documented form [Jasper]. No documentation was presented that a y/e change is a reasonable variant." (LoAR 6/92 p.7).
[Culhwch] "All of the documentation indicates that Culhwch is a unique, probably allegorical name. Since it is not constructed of elements that appear in other names, we cannot even argue for it as a constructed name."[The name was returned for this reason.] (LoAR 6/92 p.14).
"Although Midhaven appears to be an actual medieval place, it is not a 'significant geographical location outside the Society' as defined in the Administrative Handbook, Protected Items, E." (LoAR 7/91 p.1).
"While in the past arms have been registered to the regions of Ansteorra and Calontir, a number of commenters questioned whether this is a precedent we should still follow. In a discussion with the Chairman of the Board of Directors, she recommended against the registration of the names and armory of regions. Might we suggest that the region send in the paperwork for a change in status to that of principality?" (LoAR 7/91 p.18).
"Personal households may not incorporate the name of an SCA branch in their name." (LoAR 7/91 p.22).
"The problem is that 'Newest South Wales' [the translation of the submitted place] presupposes a 'New South Wales', which is a provably post-period place." (LoAR 8/91 p.24).
"[In addition to the conflict problem] a more serious problem is that registration would imply the acceptance by the Society of an order, membership in which is based on gender. If we are not willing to accept an order all of whose members could only be male, we should not give our 'stamp of approval' to one whose members can only be female." (LoAR 8/91 p.25).
[Latin Household name, meant to mean "Dead Historian's Society"] "In addition to the name being, even in Latin, an obtrusively modern take-off of a movie title and not Period in style, the grammar is incorrect...(All this leaving aside the question, of course, as to whether the household's members are all dead.)" (LoAR 9/91 p.15).
[Blackmoore] "The Administrative Handbook Protected Items F notes that locations which play a significant role in the action of the modern literary work (of any genre) in which they appear will be protected. As a consequence, in spite of the five English Blackmoors, we are having to return this for conflict with the TSR entity." (LoAR 9/91 p.18).
"Moonsea is not a period style name. Barring documentation of similarly constructed names in English, this must be returned." (LoAR 10/91 p.15).
"The problem with this name is the designator Maschio. The primary meanings in the submitter's own documentation are 'male, manly, masculine, virile'. Several commenters had questions regarding its propriety as an alternate designator for 'stronghold.'" [Returned for this reason] (LoAR 10/91 p.18).
[<Given name> of the <adjective-object>] "Regarding the question of [the personal name's] presumption versus the <Kingdom> Order of the Olde <adjective-object>, deletion of both the words 'Order of the' and 'Olde' should be sufficient to remove the appearance of presumption." (LoAR 11/91 p.2).
[Isle of the Blue Mists] "Conflict with Barony of the Isles. Of the Blue Mists is a single adjectival phrase modifying the noun Isle. Adding a collection of adjectives after a noun is no different than adding a collection of adjectives before a noun for purposes of RFS V.2. {Arguendo, if the noun is Mists, then Isle of the Blue is the adjectival phrase, and the name conflicts with the Principality of the Mists. I don't really believe this argument, but either way we have a conflict.}" (LoAR 11/91 p.23).
[Order of the Legion of the Sword of Honor] "The order name here does not appear to follow any Period order name that anyone could find. The use of multiple nouns modifying other nouns creates a semantic nightmare. Depending on how one interprets the structure of the various phrases in its name, this could be considered to conflict with the Order of the Sword or with the Legion of Honor." (LoAR 1/92 p.14).
"The 'Barony of Dragon' does not make sense in German or English. At the very least it needs an article. As the clients allowed no changes, we are having to return this." (LoAR 2/92 p.19).
[House <Place>] "<Place> is a real place in the middle ages and should not be registered to a single individual in the SCA." [It is unclear if this means we are protecting every mundane place, or whether <Place> was considered famous enough to protect, and the ruling did not mention the fact] (LoAR 2/92 p.20).
[Order of the <astrological sign>] "The name conflicts with the very well-known astronomical constellation and astrological sign." [This implies such things are protected] (LoAR 2/92 p.22).
[Household Crystal Scroll] "The household name is not one that would have been used in Period by any standards of name construction that we could find. Scrolls are not something that could be made from crystal. This is a fantasy-style name." (LoAR 4/92 p.17).
[Order of Black Widows] "Despite the contention in the LoI to the contrary, this name is indeed a conflict with Widow's Abbey per RfS V.2. Addition of an adjective is insufficient difference. Since we can grant no difference for the identifying designator (per V.4.d.), this is a conflict. As noted by Lord Batonvert, 'Abbey' in Widow's Abbey performs the same function as the word 'household' in the same position would. If the word 'household' is the designator in 'Widow's Household', 'abbey' is the designator in 'Widow's Abbey'.
As for the argument in the LoI that a black widow is 'a thing, a critter, a two word noun', if the College were to have to consider this submission on those grounds alone this would have to be returned, since the name 'black widow' was not given to the spider until early in the 20th century (the earliest citation is 1927), well after the Society's 1600 cut-off date. (The arachnid is not itself native to the Americas, but was brought into this hemisphere in the late 19th or early 20th century from the Far East.)" (LoAR 4/92 p.24).
"While several commenters questioned the compatability factors of allowing names from the Indian subcontinent in the SCA, it was the Portuguese who in the 15th and 16th Centuries broke the Arabian monopoly on the Indian Ocean trade and established a number of settlements in India. Given the historical facts, Laurel doubts the propriety of disallowing Indian names as being incompatible." (LoAR 4/92 p.7).
"CuáRuadh Keep does not appear to follow the pattern of using an anglicized Irish name in an English style place name (such would much more likely be something akin to Conroe Keep)." (LoAR 8/91 p.17).
"No evidence was presented that Scots Gaelic feminized masculine names by adding 'a'." (LoAR 11/91 p.16).
"While there are a number of Scottish patronymics formed from Old Norse personal names, no evidence was presented that the reverse ever occurred. This makes sense as the migration of settlers appears to have been pretty much one-way, from Scandinavia to Britain." (LoAR 11/91 p.17).
[<given name> bena Cato, bena meant to be Irish for "wife of"] "The byname is improperly constructed. It contains mixed languages that do not appear to have combined this way in period. (Also, according to Lord Dragon the particle should be 'ben' rather than 'bena'.)" (LoAR 3/92 p.12).
[<Hebrew female given name> bint <Hebrew man's name> <Arabic epithet>] "Period instances of Jews in Muslim Spain combining Hebrew names with the Arabic patronymic give credence to this form." (LoAR 9/91 p.7).
NAMES - Mundane Name Allowance
"The pronunciation of the SCA [name] is insufficiently different from the submitter's mundane [name] to be considered registerable by the College (Administrative Handbook, Protected Items I). If the submitter would consider nearly any change (for instance, adding 'de' in front of <the locative>), this would be sufficient." [Note that the Administrative Handbook only requires non-identity, not non-identical pronunciation. Also note a previous ruling in the LoAR 1/91 p.23 where addition of the article "the" in between the given name and surname was not enough to prevent conflict with a mundane name.] (LoAR 7/91 p.20).
[<name> of <place>] "The name is effectively identical to the submitter's use name outside the Society, <name> <place>." [The name was returned] (LoAR 9/91 p.17).
"Rule II.4 states that 'elements of a submitter's name may be used as the corresponding part of a Society name.' The subtext goes on to explain that 'corresponding elements are defined by their type, not solely their position in the name.' The submitter's middle name... is a surname by type. It may not therefore be used as a given name in the SCA." (LoAR 10/91 p.19).
"Lorraine is the submitter's legal given name. Especially given the modern-day use of Lorraine as a feminine given name, I am extremely hesitant to refuse to register it, even given the region Lorraine's position in the history of Europe (which probably helped lead to its use as a personal name). Lorraine does not seem nearly so obtrusive a usage as, say, 'England' or 'Italia' would." (LoAR 11/91 p.7).
"RFS II.4 states that 'elements of the submitter's legal name may be used as the corresponding part of the Society name if such elements are not excessively obtrusive and do not violate other sections of these rules.' Unfortunately, Deyrni is 'excessively obtrusive', owing at least in part to the great popularity of Kathrine Kurtz's Deryni series. (That she is well known as a Countess in the SCA doesn't help, either). Nearly every commenter who had anything to say about this name noted the problem of reading the given as 'Deryni'." (LoAR 11/91 p.19).
"Because this name differs only by adding an 'e' to the surname, this is technically in conflict with her legal use name, per the Administrative Handbook part I, Protected Items I, which states in pertinent part that 'no item will be registered to a submitter if it is identical with an item used by the submitter legally or in common use outside the Society.' It may not be the name she commonly uses, but it is legally available to her to be used at any time, and is therefore (one of her) legal name(s)." (LoAR 1/92 p.19).
[Patrick MacManus] "Conflict with Patrick F. McManus, a well-known modern writer of humor. His name is apparently too recent to appear yet in any of our standard sources, but he is clearly well known enough to warrant protection. (Even Lord Laurel who has read none of his works, is familiar with all the titles mentioned by the commenters.) [The] statement that 'there is no problem with conflict' because of the middle initial 'F' is in error. We do protect against legal use names. In this specific case a legal name for the author is indeed Patrick McManus: this is a conflict." (LoAR 3/92 p.14).
[Cwenhere] "The given mixes a feminine prototheme with a masculine deterotheme. Such a construction is impossible by the rules by which Old English names were constructed." (LoAR 12/91 p.16).
[Cwenwyn] "Given the many attestations of 'Cwen' both alone and as a protheme in Period, I believe that we should give it the same allowance that we do the name Regina: so long as it is not used in a name in such a way as to imply landedness, it will be acceptable for registration." (LoAR 2/92 p.12).
[<Name> Gildwynsson] "<Name> is a feminine given name and could not be used in a mixed gender name (in other words, she cannot be Gildwyn's son)." [Note that does not seem consistent with practices that would register, for example, 'Ann Williamson.' The implication is that because the name is entirely Old English, the patronymic would not have been an inherited surname of Gildwynsson (which is gender-neutral because it is inherited), but would have actually translated to <Name>, Gildwyn's daughter.] (LoAR 6/92 p.20).
[Female name formed with a feminine given, a masculine given, and a masculine surname] "This is not a correctly formed Russian name. Russian naming practices are very strict and do not have the leeway given many other languages. The correct form would appear to be <given name, feminine patronymic, feminine surname>. However, since the submitter allowed no changes at all we were unable to correct the grammar to register the name." (LoAR 10/91 p.15).
[Masculine name formed with two masculine given names] "While acceptable in this form (with a second given name as a byname), the name would be better formed with a patronymic." (LoAR 12/91 p.8).
"While there are a number of Scottish patronymics formed from Old Norse personal names, no evidence was presented that the reverse ever occurred. This makes sense as the migration of settlers appears to have been pretty much one-way, from Scandinavia to Britain." (LoAR 11/91 p.17).
[Asbjarnarson] "Submitted as... Asbjornson. The name has been modified to correct the grammar of the patronym. Laurel is hesitant to extend the allowance made for Bjornsson to include compound names without more period evidence for support." [overruled 3/92 p.4] (LoAR 1/92 p.5).
"Lord Treblerose... documented Norse patronymics in period using the genitive 's' as well as their more 'correct' genitive forms. Thus Bjarnisson is as acceptable as the technically more correct Bjarnasson." [Supersedes LoAR of 1/92 p.5] (LoAR 3/92 p.4).
"There was a little commentary regarding a request for a 'standard transliteration' for the benefit of those without all of the 'fancy characters' in their word processors. It was noted that 'the only ones who really need to have printers that can do all the strange stuff are Laurel and Free Trumpet Press West'. {Laurel wants to know if that commenter plans on buying the Laurel office a printer that will do all those fancy characters, then since his printer will not do them all?} Laurel does not feel any overwhelming need to dictate a 'standard' transliteration for each non-standard character from Norse or any other language. We do not require a standardized transliteration system for Chinese, Japanese, Mongol, Persian, or Arabic; I fail to see why we should mandate one for Norse. As a general rule I will use the 'fancy characters' if my word processor will do them, but for some, particularly thorns and edhs, will generally use 'th' or 'd', depending on the specific name." (CL 11/12/91 p.2).
"The transliteration as submitted of the patronymic was not reasonable, combining as it did two different transliteration systems in a single name element, which serves only to distort the pronunciation." [It was modified to a consistent transliteration] (LoAR 10/91 p.1).
"As Mistress Alisoun also noted when she was Laurel, while temporal inconsistency in a name is sometimes notable, in a society where an Elizabethan lady can sit at the table next to an early Viking, requiring temporal consistency in a name seems to be asking more than is necessary." (LoAR 10/91 p.7).
"The use of a Greek adjective (as opposed to a Greek name element) in the middle of an Irish/English name seems unlikely. We would prefer to see some evidence of at least a pattern of similar naming practices in period." [The name was returned for this reason] (LoAR 11/91 p.19).
"The citation in Dauzat for 'Loch' by itself lends credence to the use of Loch with the article 'de'." (LoAR 12/91 p.5).
[Castell Daibhidh] "The name mixes languages in a single phrase, and no evidence was presented that it is possible to mix English and Scottish Gaelic in this way." (LoAR 12/91 p.16).
"A term which has been receiving more use lately in some commentary regarding names is 'temporal compatibility', especially regarding names which use elements from different centuries (though from the same general language or at least compatible ones). The argument is that since we do not allow names to combine elements from widely disparate cultures, neither should we allow names from disparate centuries.
A problem that I have with this argument is that it is harder to prove that a name combination is unreasonable or incompatible when the gap between the elements is temporal rather than geographical. Only one example of this is the use of a Roman or Roman-derived given with a late-period English surname. It is easy to look at such a name and state that there was no way those two cultures could have had contact and therefore argue for banning the name combination, until one looks further into the situation and finds that English Renaissance parents not infrequently named their children after classical Romans, at which point Julius Leigh or Calpurnia Haverhill become much more reasonable as they follow a documented period name formation practice. And while many of our sources give early dates for when we might expect the first documented use of a name, none of them purport to give us the last documented use.
In most (perhaps all) cultures naming customs tend to be very conservative. (How many parents today still use biblical names for their children, no matter what their religious orientation? How many still name their children with names first popularized in the early Renaissance? 'John' is still one of the most popular boys' names in this country - how long ago did it originate?)
As a consequence, unless someone can convince the College that there is some compelling reason for disallowing names that our clients want simply on the grounds that they are unlikely because of a temporal gap, and that banning such temporally inconsistent names is of greater benefit to the Society than giving our clients the greatest possible leeway in selecting their Society names, I will continue to act as if the College is here to help our clients and not just build higher and higher hurdles for them to scale in the effort to register a Society-acceptable name." (CL 2/12/92 pps. 5-6).
[Vnycornes] "We would prefer to register the standard orthography (Unycorne; the i/y switch is not a problem) for greater consistency in filing and conflict checking in the future. The policy here would be similar to that of our registration of the fully-spelled out 'Saint' rather than the scribal abbreviation 'St.'. The client may certainly use it with an initial 'v', as that was a fairly common usage in period, but for consistency's sake we would register the standard form." (LoAR 2/92 p.24).
[Ancient Egyptian name] "While a number of commenters argued that ancient Egypt (and ancient Egyptian names) is outside the scope of the Society, unless and until the Board of Directors places an early cutoff date, we must continue to consider names such as this one legitimate submissions." (LoAR 5/92 p.22).
[<name1> priod o <name2>] "Lady Harpy presented evidence of several period names formed in this manner. However, a more common and possibly more correct form would be <name1> gwraic <name2>." [Lady Harpy only presented evidence for the formation <name> priod <name>. Lord Laurel inferred the acceptability of the form <name> priod o <name>] (LoAR 12/91 p.13).
[Per pale vert and azure, a sea-fan argent] "Conflict with <the mon> A military fan bendwise. There is one CVD for orientation of the charge, but nothing for the tincture. Conflict also with <another mon> A military fan within an annulet, with only one CVD for the addition of the annulet." [This ruling strongly implies that not even the "fieldless difference" applies to mon.] (LoAR 7/91 p.22).
[In the case of a mon] "[There is no difference] for tincture (since mundane mon are essentially tinctureless) nor for fieldlessness (since mon are not fieldless badges. Mon have fields; their tinctureless makes them omnifielded for all practical purposes.)" (LoAR 11/91 p.19).
"We share Lord Trefoil's doubts regarding dismissing conflicts from the Matsuya Piece Goods Store on a 'pick and choose' basis. As we have said before regarding some of the names in Withycombe or armory in Fabulous Heraldry, we are unwilling to start making lists of exceptions to standard references. The [other problem with the armory] simplifies matters this time; however, unless and until Matsuya can be shown to be unreliable in a manner similar to, say, Loughead, we will continue to use it for conflict checking." (LoAR 11/91 p.21).
"Lord Laurel is confused by the misunderstanding some commenters seem to have regarding the difference between fieldless and tinctureless armory. Fieldless armory gets a CD for fieldlessness; tinctureless armory (SCA, not mundane) acquires one CD for fieldlessness - the other CD must come from a class other than tincture (RfS X.4.d). Japanese mon, while tinctureless, are not fieldless; thus, they cannot be granted the fieldlessness difference. Addition or removal of charges, field and charge divisions (since mon appear only to have used solid fields and solid charges), complex lines, all contribute difference from mon. Fieldlessness does not, unless the SCA armory being considered against it is fieldless, in which case the SCA armory, not the mon, gets a CD for fieldlessness." (LoAR 1/92 p.15).