Name Precedents of the SCA College of Arms (2nd Tenure of Da'ud Ibn Auda)

NAME PRECEDENTS OF THE S.C.A. COLLEGE OF ARMS

The 2nd Tenure of Da'ud Ibn Auda (2nd year)

Documentation & Documentable Names

Submitted as Tamora Enderkelyn, that spelling was only documented from "Titus and Andronicus", one of Shakespeare's plays appearing in 1594, and there was no documentation that it ever entered into general use. We have therefore substituted the documented form. [Editor's note: the play in question, which is eminently missable, is Titus Andronicus.] (Tamara Enderkelyn, 8/94 p. 10)

Brianne is a modern name and apparently could only arise as a French version of Brianna; a hypothetical French form of a probably non-existent Latinized feminine form of a masculine Irish name [to borrow Palimpsest's wording] is farther from documented practice then we are willing to go. (Brianne nic Auslan de Buchanan, 8/94 p. 18)

[changing the byname Capulet] Shakespeare's use of Capulet is insufficient to establish it as an actual name. The available Italian sources suggest that Capulet is probably a distortion of Cap(p)elletti (and that Montague is similarly a distortion of Montecchi). We have substituted...Capelet, an occupational byname for maker of chaplets (small hats; chaplets, garlands). (Cecelya Capelet, 9/94 p. 2)

Submitted as ...Silverferret, the existence of Silver and Ferret as period surnames, as noted in the LoI, no more justifies Silverferret than the existence of Smith and Jones justifies Smithjones. We have therefore registered the name as an (extremely rare in period) double surname. (Eirik Silver Ferret, 9/94 p. 3)

Submitted as ...Mieleska, there already exists a feminine occupational surname meaning "miller"; as such, there is no need to construct such a name, especially without input from someone with a good knowledge of the language. We have therefore substituted the documented byname. (Agnieszka Mlynarska, 9/94 p. 10)

[returning the given name Albion] Albion is the oldest known name for Great Britain as a whole as early as circa 500 B.C.E. The mythological figure...was created to explain the ancient place-name. Names of mythological figures are generally disallowed unless shown to have been used by real humans in period. Albion appears never to have been anything but a place-name. (Albion, Son of Robyn, 9/94 p. 16)

The byname is inadequately documented. We need more than that an unnamed "native speaker" said so. Dictionary or language book citations (or better, photocopies), or a more complete explanation from an identified native speaker as to why it is correctly formed would be helpful. (A'isha al-Aneed, 9/94 p. 21)

The submitted form mixes two different transliteration systems, which has the effect of changing the pronunciation of the names. The name in its entirety should adopt a single system of transliteration. (Katia Stesnaya, 9/94 p. 21)

[returning the given name Xavier] No evidence has been found that Xavier was anything but a placename in period. The use of Xavier as a given name comes after the canonization of St. Francis Xavier, which occurred in 1622. (Xavier Tormod Macleod, 10/94 p. 15)

[returning the byname the Artful] The epithet, though the word was dated to 1613 (inside our "gray area" for documentation) is far too late to have been used in this kind of epithetical formation. (Edward the Artful, 10/94 p. 16)

A new names book to watch out for (in the negative sense) is Julia Cresswell's Bloomsbury Dictionary of First Names. I saw a copy in one of the local half-price bookstores just a few days before the Laurel meeting, thumbed through it, found several errors and immediately put it down. Then in processing the submissions at the January 1995 Laurel meeting, one of the submissions quoted it to support Llewellyn (the submitted name was changed at kingdom to the more usual Welsh spelling). Ms. Cresswell's book appears to be one that SCA heralds and submitters would do well to avoid. (CL 1/95)

The word barrister came into use so late that the form of the byname here is essentially impossible. However, names with similar meanings which were documented by the commenters included le Lawyer (1336), Lawman (1279), le Legistere (1286), and derived from OE mótere (public speaker) and OFr plaideor, plaitier (pleader), le Motere (1175), le Mouter (1327), Plaitere (1216), le Pleytour (1327), and le Pledour (1331). [The name was registered] (Ansel the Barrister, 5/95 p. 7)

Caelica appears as the title to a collection of sonnets by Sir Fulke Greville, Lord Brook, which appeared only after his death, having first been published in 1633. As such, it could not have been a part of the name pool before 1600, and must be considered to be in the same category as other similar names, such as Miranda, as out of period. [The name was returned.] (Caelica of Argyll, 5/95 p. 14)

There have been some commenters of late who have been calling for the return of name submissions where the various elements of the name are not dated to within 300 years of each other. Other commenters are apparently under the impression that some names have already been returned because their various elements are not dated to within 300 years of each other. Laurel is at a loss to understand how a precedent set by Baron Bruce which said specifically that a temporal discontinuity of 300 years or more was not, in and of itself, sufficient reason to return a name, has become in recent times the "300 year rule" requiring the return of a submission. So that we may all be clear on the topic, I quote the relevant precedent here:
In a number of my recent rulings, I've ruled that excessive temporal mismatching can be considered a "weirdness", costing the submitter the benefit of the doubt. With this LoAR [March 1993], I hereby make the new policy official: If the elements of a submitted name are dated too far apart, then any other anomaly in the name may combine to force it to be returned. The greater the temporal divide, the greater the anomaly: a given name and byname whose spellings are documented within, say, a century of each other will probably be all right, but a three-century divide is pushing it.
By itself, temporal incompatibility is still not sufficient reason for return. I haven't yet been faced with a case so extreme (a couple of millennia, say) to require a return; our worst instance of temporal mismatch (Tamas of Midian) also involved geographic mismatch as well. But henceforth, excessive temporal mismatch may contribute to a name's unacceptability; another problem with the name may cause it to be returned. [Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme, 8 May 1993 Cover Letter, pg. 4] (CL 6/95)

Please add Augustus Wilfrid Dellquest's These Names of Ours: A Book of Surnames (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell) to the list of name books that are unacceptable as documentation. I haven't seen the book in its entirety, but in this case even a few pages submitted as documentation are enough to show that it is worthless for our purposes. (CL 9/95)

[returning the occupational byname the Lamp Lighter] No evidence was presented that lamp-lighting was a period occupation. We shouldn't be surprised to find that it was, but given the doubts expressed by several commenters, we need some actual evidence that the byname is reasonable. The closest that we can come are some period occupational terms for lantern-bearers or candle-bearers, e.g., Latin lanternarius and the derived French surname Lanternier. (The situation is analogous to the first registration of a previously-unused charge.) (Natalie the Lamp Lighter, 11/95 p. 11)

Lea is the submitter's modern middle name. As Laurel noted in returning Needham Bledsoe (10/91 LoAR, Outlands), a modern middle name may be used as a Society given name only if it is a given name by type, and Lea is not; originally: it is a locative surname derived from Old English leah `glade; meadow; wood'. [The name was returned for this and other reasons.] (Lea of Crystal Mountain, 11/95 p. 12)

[returning Vairocana Belnon of Uddiyana] Significant interaction between Tibet and pre-seventeenth century Western culture has not been demonstrated. The Encyclopædia Britannica dates the first visits to Tibet by Western missionaries to the 17th century, and the fact that the 8th century Tibetan kingdom had some contact with the Arab conquerors of Iran still leaves Tibetans at least two removes from Western Europe. [The name was returned for this and other problems.] (Ko Fujibayashi Tashikage of Togakure, 11/95 p. 15)

[returning the byname the Whaleseeker] No one found Whaleseeker a plausible period byname, and most commenters found it intrusively modern in form. Despite the Norse trade in narwhal horns, the large Icelandic-English Dictionary compiled by Cleasby, Vigfusson, and Craigie has only one hval- (`whale-') compound describing an occupation, namely, hvalskyti `harpooner', and it seems unlikely that whaleseeking was a discrete occupation separate from command and navigation. Geirr Bassi notes the Old Norse byname hvalaskúfr `a seabird which follows the whales', which would certainly seem to be appropriate for a notably successful whaler; unfortunately, it is questionable whether it could reasonably be combined with the Latin Patricia. (Patricia the Whaleseeker, 1/96 p. 21)

The names Morgana and Alana, as well as any other similarly feminized masculine names for which there is no evidence of period use (and which have not already been declared �SCA-compatible'), are not considered �SCA- compatible'. In other words, the argument based on the Latin/Romance practice of using inflectional endings to change the gender of a name is not automatically valid; it must be supported either by evidence of period use of the specific name or by evidence that the practice was in general use in the linguistic culture of that name. (CL 6/96)

English

see also Anglo-Saxon

Submitted as Francis Thorppe, the double "p" is an orthographical device used to indicate that the immediately preceding vowel is short; as the vowel does not immediately precede the "p" (as it does in Throp, Thropp), the doubling of the "p" is extremely unlikely and unattested in the documentation. (Francis Thorpe, 7/94 p 1)

This spelling of the byname appears in the OED as the Danish form. Given the Danish presence in England, I can find no compelling reason not to give the submitter his desired spelling. (Ædward Stadefæste, 7/94 p. 6)

Though registered a number of times in the SCA, "dark" does not appear to be an element used in English placenames. You might tell the submitter that she would do better with Blackmoor or Swarthmoor. [The name was registered.] (Aveline of Darkmoore, 8/94 p. 5)

[registering Patrick Donovan of Warwick] Submitted as Patrick Donovan Warwick, the use of double surnames (or double given names) in English was very late period, and rare enough to be remarkable. ... Since the submitter allowed changes, we have added the [preposition] to make a more likely form. (Patrick Donovan of Warwick, 9/94 p. 4)

[deleting the byname Thin Oak] Thynchere (thin cheer (face)") and Thynnewyt ("thin wit") offer only very weak support for Thinoak (let alone Thin Oak). Both describe directly some feature of the person in question. Jönsjö has no nicknames containing the word oak, and the examples of Oak at (Reaney & Wilson, 327) are all locative. (John Edward, 9/94 p. 6)

Submitted as ...the Brown-Eyed, English bynames were not formed from adjectival past participles. We have substituted the documented form. (Elisabeth Browneye, 9/94 p. 10)

[returning the byname Blackwing] None of the commenters could find any surnames based on the English word wing. (The surname Wing itself is apparently locative.) Indeed, no examples of <color><animal part> were found. Nor is there an English tradition of surnames based on armorial bearings (as there is in Germany, for example. (William Blackwing, 9/94 p. 16)

[returning the byname the Crusader] Crusader appears not to be a period word. The earliest citation in the OED for crusader is from 1743. Given the history of the word crusade in the same source, a date much earlier than c. 1700 seems out of the question. (Cornelius the Crusader, 9/94 p. 17)

[returning House of the Argent Horse] "Argent" is not a common English element; as an adjective referring to a color, its use is confined almost entirely to heraldry. English, unlike German, has no tradition of house names based on armory; the authentic usage would be White Horse. (Jonathan Thorne, 9/94 p. 18)

The patronymic was Gaelic with the remainder of the name was Englished. As no examples have yet been adduced for combining fully Gaelic forms with Englished forms, we have made the smallest change possible and Englished the patronymic. (Ian MacIneirie of Inverary, 10/94 p. 7)

A combination of an Old English forename with what can only be a fairly late English form of an Irish surname is too far from period practice. [The name was returned.] (Wege Teague, 10/94 p. 12)

The modern English form of the Irish patronym is entirely inconsistent with an Old English given name. (Beornheard O'Dea, 10/94 p. 14)

Submitted as Kendric, son of Godric, the comma is not a period usage, and we have dropped it here. (Kendric son of Godric, 11/94 p. 3)

This would be better as Alexander Kyppyn of Kirkcaldy -- the use of double surnames in English is vanishingly rare. [The name was registered anyway.] (Alexander Kyppyn Kirkcaldy, 11/94 p. 4)

All the evidence found...was that in the British Isles the "e" in "de" was not elided in the same way it was in France. The evidence shows that the byname would either have been de Arden or possibly (on the model of "de Arraz" and "Darraz") Darden. [The name was returned.] (Crispin d'Arden, 12/94 p. 13)

Sufficient documentation for the general form of <fitz><mother's name> was presented to show a practice of this pattern. (Valentine fitz Katherine, 1/95 p. 11)

Submitted as Sundered Oak, the use of the adjectival past participle in placenames has not been documented as a period pattern or practice. [The name was registered in the altered form.] (Sunderoak, Canton of, 2/95 p. 5)

Submitted as William Ethelwulf Bruce, Ethelwulf is entirely out of place in the remainder of the name. (Please remember, Anglo-Saxon and 17th Century English are two entirely different languages. We have dropped the problematic element in order to register the name. (William Bruce, 2/95 p. 7)

No documentation has been fund for combined Norse-English/Arabic names. [The name was returned.] (Eric Ibrahim Mozarab, 2/95 p. 14)

Submitted as Dustin the Mostly Harmless, the construction of the byname appears to follow no period exemplars that any of the commenters could find. We have dropped the most problematic element. (Dustin the Harmless, 4/95 p. 3)

[registering the epithet Breakring] Submitted as ... Ringbreaker..., the byname was formed in a manner which does not follow the examples (e.g., Brekedore `break door', cited in Jönsjö) for such names in period. We have modified the byname to correspond to the historical models. (Conrad Breakring of Ascalon, 5/95 p. 1)

[registering the epithet Hæweneage] Submitted as ...Haewen Eagen, all of the period exemplars of similar names are compounded into a single word. Jönsjö has a number of compounds of the form <color>+<eye>, again always as a single word and always with "eye" in the singular. The submitted form is using the plural eagan, where the singular eage is better supported by the historical examples. The OE noun eage `eye' is neuter. The adjective will be in the indefinite declension here and in the nominative singular neuter, so it will receive no ending. The byname would then be hæweneage, which we have registered. (Ælfgar Hæweneage, 5/95 p. 1)

The combination of the late-period Damaris with the mediaeval de Sheldon is unlikely. No convincing evidence was adduced that the preposition 'de' continued to be used with purely English place-names after the middle of the 15th century. (The example of George de Clifford in the LoI appears to result from a misreading of the source.) We are registering the name as submitted on the slim possibility that Damaris might have been used during the brief flowering of unusual and imaginative women's names c. 1200. Damaris Sheldon would be an excellent late-period Puritan name. (Damaris de Sheldon, 6/95 p. 1)

[changing the epithet the Confused] Adjectival past participles are vanishingly rare in the context of epithetical bynames. Moreover, the full text of the 1382 citation in the COED clearly shows that the author did not expect his readers necessarily to recognize the word confusid: the word is immediately explained in more familiar terms. A word that was rare and unfamiliar in 1382 (and for which the COED has no further citations in this sense until well past even the gray area of 1600-1650) is difficult to believe as a byname of this type; there simply wasn't time for it to have become familiar while such names were still being formed. However, the usual adjective form in the 14th Century appears to have been confuse, which would make an acceptable byname and which we have substituted here. (Ciaran the Confuse, 6/95 p. 9)

[returning the byname of the Thorny Rose] Inn names, which the byname here is said to be based on, were not expressed by the term "of the"; the form used was "atte" (at the). No documentation whatsoever was presented for the byname (other than it "is an Inn that [her] parents run"), and "thorny" seems somewhat redundant for roses. Kytte atte Rose would be a fine name, but is beyond the purview of "minor changes", which the submitter did not allow in any case. (Kytte of the Thorny Rose, 6/95 p. 22)

[changing Dirk Ivanovich] No one produced evidence of sufficient interaction between the Low Countries and Russia in period to justify the combination. (Direk Ivanovich, 8/95 p. 5)

Despite the lack of early citations in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary for keep as part of a castle, the citation Thomas ate Kepe 1327 from Reaney & Wilson shows that it is a legitimate mediæval topographical element. (Henry of Stone Hill Keep, 9/95 p. 8)

Such a Russian/English combination is extremely improbable in period. [The name was registered.] (Tatiana Mitford, 9/95 p. 9)

In the absence of any evidence for Polish/English names, this combination seems a bit too improbable to register. (Ladislaus de Brady, 9/95 p. 25)

[The] Lefthanded doesn't follow the syntactic pattern of attested period nicknames. [the byname was registered as [the Lefthand] (Thomas Blackswann the Lefthand, 10/95 p. 11)

[returning the epithet the Melancholy Procrastinator] The byname does not follow period models. To quote Harpy: `Independently, the concepts, linguistic patterns, and actual vocabulary of this byname can be shown to be period. It's in putting them together that it flies beyond the limits of anything we have any experience with in period.' Nicknames describing mental and moral characteristics tend in English to use native rather than learned words, and they tend to relate to everyday experience. A melancholy person might be called Chirelitle `cheer little', Waneles `without hope', or Malore `unhappy and unlucky'; a lazy or slow person, Comelate, Dolitel, Hasteles `without haste', or Lenealday `lean or rest all day' (Jönsjö, Middle English Nicknames, p. 21). (Judith the Melancholy Procrastinator, 11/95 p. 15)

The given name was submitted as Catriona, which cannot be justified as an English spelling, while the surname can only be English. Since the two spelling systems do not seem to have been combined in period, we have substituted the English spelling Catrina (pronounced almost identically). (Catrina MacKinnon, 12/95 p. 4)

The Wanderer is not a standard English byname; it is a standard SCA byname for which no period citation has yet been found. [The name was registered.] (Johan Gregor the Wanderer, 12/95 p. 7)

The epithet appeared as le Normand on the LoI; the upper-case L, which appears on his form, is rare but documentable. (Roger fitzRolf Le Normand, 1/96 p. 4)

Catriona is not a reasonable period Anglicization of Gaelic Caitriona and its variants, as may be seen from the recorded Anglo-Scottish forms Catrina and Katrina. However, the lingua anglica allowance permits it to be combined with the English version of the locative. (Catriona of Downpatrick, 1/96 p. 14)

[registering the byname Gentlehand] The byname is very unlikely. For most of our period gentle referred to good birth and breeding; the sense of softness and tenderness seems not to have appeared until the 16th century. A period expression of the idea is seen in Godhand c.1095 `good hand', which might later have appeared as Godehand. Swethand' `sweet hand' is also attested, and Mild(e)hand would be a reasonable construct. (Ragnar Gentlehand, 1/96 p. 18)

[returning the Shire of Cloudy River] The name was chosen on account of a `large, murky river' running through the shire; however, cloudy does not seem to have been used in this sense in period place-names. The Old English place-name elements fûl `foul, dirty, filthy', fennig `dirty, muddy, marshy', blæc `black, dark-colored, dark', êa `river, stream', and wæter `water, an expanse of water; lake, pool; stream, river' can be used to construct a variety of period-style place-names with basically the desired meaning. In likely Middle English forms some of these would be: Fuleye, Fulewatere, Fennywatere, Blakeye, and Blakewatere (actually attested from 1279). (Cloudy River, Shire of, 1/96 p. 23)

[returning the given name Kestrel] While some names of birds can be found as personal names in some European languages, documented examples all existed as name elements since the earliest records of the languages in question. But the earliest instance of kestrel (in any form) in the OED is from the 15th C., and if the etymology suggested there is right, the word derives from French forms that are quite different. Thus, it did not exist when such personal names of this type were still being created. It might make an acceptable byname, though it is a bit late to be very convincing even in that rôle, but it cannot have been a given name in our period. We must therefore return the name for lack of a given name (required by RfS III.2.a (Personal Names)). (Kestrel Corsayre, 1/96 p. 29)

In period Arianna is Italian, so the locative, which was submitted as of the Windy Isles, is best interpreted as a translation, permitted under the lingua anglica allowance. The extent of this allowance was discussed in detail in the 12/95 return of Ananda the Fiery (Middle); according to the precedent there cited, it covers translations of �documented period epithets', provided that the translation has been chosen to minimize any intrusive modernity. Actual practice has been somewhat looser: not only has the College allowed non-intrusive translations of epithets thought to be compatible with the naming practices of the source language, but it has even allowed fairly generic English epithets without requiring a demonstration that they were plausible translations of period epithets from the language of the rest of the name. This latter practice can easily result in names that have very little to do with period practice in any language. Consequently, we have no qualms about requiring in such cases -- of which this is one -- that the epithet be put into a period English form. (Arianna othe Windisle, 2/96 p. 1)

The byname was submitted as Shieldbreaker. The concept is excellent, but the construction does not follow period patterns: in such nicknames the verb comes first. (Compare the 5/95 registration of Conrad Breakring of Ascalon (An Tir), whose nickname was submitted as Ringbreaker, and the 11/93 registration of Christoph Breakshield (Meridies), whose byname was submitted as Shieldbreaker.) The example of Geoffrey le Seldmakere 1285, noted in the LoI, illustrates one of the few general exceptions to this rule, namely, occupational names in -makere; it does not support a more general agent construction of the form <verb> + -er in nicknames. The spellings Brekes(h)eld would be more characteristic of the period in which such names are commonly found. (Corwin Breakshield, 2/96 p. 4)

[registering House Drakenmarsh] The household name was submitted as House Dragonmarsh, but as several commenters noted, the French import dragon does not seem to have been used in English place-names. The usual word is drake, from Old English draca, and Drakemarsh would undoubtedly be the most likely modern form. However, we were able to find one name, Drakenage (from dracen ecg �dragon's edge (probably of an escarpment)'), in which the Old English genitive singular dracan has been preserved. It is likely that the inflectional -n owes its preservation in this name to the initial vowel of the second element; before m it would probably have been lost. Nevertheless, we have given Drakenmarsh the benefit as a possible period descendant of an Old English dracan mersc �dragon's marsh' in order to stay as close as possible to the submitted form. (Mora Naturalist of Blackmarsh, 4/96 p. 6)

[registering the byname of the Thornes] By far the most frequent English preposition in topographical bynames is atte, though other locative prepositions are also found (e.g., by, in, under). However, we have found a few topographical bynames uncharacteristically formed with othe and recently even a very few with the uncontracted form of the. Much as we dislike reïnforcing the widespread misconception, fed by modern fantasy, that of the X is a standard sort of mediæval English byname, these examples do justify the submitted form. (Possible 15th and 16th century alternatives with a similar sound are A'Thornes and A Thornes, from the usual mediæval atte Thornes.) We note, however, that we have not found any examples of non-topographical bynames of the form of the X; apart from sign names, which use atte, the period construction is with the X (in various spellings). (Rowena of the Thornes, 5/96 p. 2)

[registering the locative of Huntingdon Loxley] There are many period English place-names of this type, i.e., a place- name followed (and modified) by another. Sometimes the second place-name is just that, as in Kirkby Laythorpe (Kirkeby Leylthorp 1316), which apparently combined earlier communities of Kirkby and Laythorpe; in other cases, like that of Farleigh Hungerford (Farlegh Hungerford 1404), an apparent second place-name is actual the surname of an early owner. On either basis Huntingdon Loxley is a possible 13th century place-name. (Anne of Huntingdon Loxley, 6/96 p. 6)

The locative was submitted as of the Broken Tower, a form that seems to owe more to fantasy than to history. The syntax is atypical for a topographical byname, no evidence is adduced to support idiomatic use of broken in this sense, and tower is a 16th century spelling in a byname of a type that is rare after c.1400. We agree with Black Dove that this is least implausible if interpreted as a sign (or inn) name, though such bynames are rare in English usage. We have therefore adjusted the preposition to match the documented examples of such bynames and used a spelling contemporary with this type of name. (Marion atte Broken Towre, 6/96 p. 7)

Finnish

[registering Seitsemän Pyhän Unikeon veljeskunta] The household name means �Brotherhood of the Seven Holy Sleepers'; it refers to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, who according to 6th c. legend were early Christians who were walled up in a cave near Ephesus while taking refuge from the persecution of Decius. God put them to sleep, and 200 years later they awoke to find their city Christian; soon afterward they died and were venerated as saints. The story was popularized by Gregory of Tours in the 6th century. Albion provided examples of 14th and 15th century guilds with similar names, e.g., Kolmen Pyhän Kuninkaan kilta �Guild of the Three Holy Kings'. (Peter Schneck, 5/96 p. 5)

French

[returning the locative du Croissant d'Argent] The parallel made with the many croix placenames is not apt; Dauzat, in discussing the placename Croix states, "These localities take their name from a cross erected either for a pious purpose, or to mark a crossroads or simply a boundary." Crescents were not used as landmarks; the only documented Croissant is in Finisterre in Brittany and comes from the Breton word kroazhent meaning "crossroads." (Charlotte du Croissant d'Argent, 7/94 p. 9)

[returning the locative du Croissant d'Argent] No documentation has been presented for inn names in French. (Charlotte du Croissant d'Argent, 7/94 p. 9)

Palimpsest noted some support for late period French double-given hyphenated names. [The name was registered.] (Anne-Marie l'Amasseresse, 8/94 p. 1)

Submitted as [N] de La Tour-du-Pin, the hyphens in the placename are modern. [The name was registered without the hyphens.] (Perronnelle Charrette de La Tour du Pin, 9/94 p. 4)

[registering the byname de la Forest] Though it looks a little out of place, this form of the byname is actually the period spelling; forêt is a modern spelling, of which the carat of the "e" indicates the missing "s". (Mirabella Christian du Lac de la Forest, 10/94 p. 8)

[returning Karolyne] Caroline does not appear to be a period name. The poem from which it was documented here, quoted by Ensign, and accompanying glosses indicate that Caroline is "little Charles, one loyal to Charles" and "one loyal to Charles". It is apparent from the context and glosses that Caroline was not used as a personal name in this poem. And the November 1994 registration of Caroline was based on a faulty inference of French use from the establishment of a Fort Caroline in Florida in 1564 by French Huguenots. However, in French, carolin(e) is the adjective formed from the Latin Carolus (Charles); the fort was probably named in honor of Charles IX, who succeeded to the throne of France in 1560. (Karolynbe Wanderer, 4/95 p. 9)

This name contains four given names and a locative surname, more elements than are supported by the period evidence, even for French. We have dropped the fourth given as the submitter specifically allowed to register the name. (Jean Paul Étienne de La Chaise Dieu, 6/95 p. 19)

[registering the byname du Belier] The byname is analogous to the source of the modern surname Duboc `[son] of the buck'; it signifies a son of a man nicknamed `the ram'. (Lucas du Belier, 8/95 p. 3)

Four given names goes well beyond documented French usage even at the very end of our period. For that matter, we have no evidence of French use of five-element names of any kind; until such evidence is presented, we are extending the existing ban on five-element names in English (Catherine Elizabeth Holly Winthrop of Lincolnshire, Caid, 7/92 LoAR), Italian (Marco Giovanni Drago Bianco Vento, Ansteorra, 9/92 LoAR), and German (Susanna Elizabeth Marie Wiegner von Kassel, Trimaris, 10/92 LoAR) to include French as well. (Cecille Marie Gabryell Geneviève du Mont, 10/95 p. 16)

There is no more evidence for mixing French and Gaelic spelling conventions than there is for mixing those of English and Gaelic, so one convention or the other must be used throughout. (Chrétienne Aingeal nic Chaoindealbháin, 10/95 p. 18)

The epithet appeared as le Normand on the LoI; the upper-case L, which appears on his form, is rare but documentable. (Roger fitzRolf Le Normand, 1/96 p. 4)

The French surname tacked onto an otherwise thoroughly Russian name is implausible. Justification would appear to depend on a persona story rather than on evidence from period naming practice. Nevertheless, the persona story in question - Russian girl marries French trader and adopts his surname - is probably within current limits of acceptability. [The name was registered.] (Dasha Miloslava Broussard, 1/96 p. 6)

No evidence has been presented to support French use of prefixed nicknames other than gros `large' and petit `small', whose use is inferred from such extant surnames as Grosclaude and Petitjean. The widespread surnames Rouge and Lerouge clearly indicate that the epithet rouge was used, but we need evidence for this unusual placement before we can register it. We would have dropped the problematic element, but she allows no changes, so we must return the name. (Rouge Anne Marie de Maurier, 1/96 p. 24)

[registering the byname LeFleur] The French noun fleur �flower' (from Latin florem) is feminine, and the standard French feminine definite article is la, so the surname is usually found as LaFleur. In the Picard dialect of Old French, however, while florem still became fleur, the feminine article was le. Picard forms like LeFleur have largely been supplanted by the corresponding Francien forms with La, but Picard LeFleche (from feminine flèche �arrow') survives beside the more common LaFleche, and it seems likely that more forms of this type existed in period. (Sebastian LeFleur, 3/96 p. 5)

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