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Name Research Without Books | |||||||||||
Articles > NamesName Research Without BooksUrsula Georges These notes describe strategies and resources for researching medieval names for use in the Society of Creative Anachronism. The Basic GoalFrom Pelican, September 2004 LOAR (http://www.sca.org/heraldry/loar/2004/09/04-09cl.html):
Evaluating Sources
Browsing the WebThe Medieval Names Archive The Medieval Names Archive has general information on naming practices, and links to articles on names from specific cultures. Articles are reviewed before inclusion, and the archive includes notes on how to use specific articles. Searching the Academy of Saint Gabriel Archives There are several thousand Academy of Saint Gabriel reports on particular names and heraldic practices. If you're looking for information on a specific name, Academy reports can be extremely useful. Academy Reports are stored by report number. If you know the number of the report you're looking for, you can open it directly; for example, Academy Report 2000 is at http://www.s-gabriel.org/2000. The Report Archive (http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/archive.cgi) is arranged in chronological order. You can use the report archive to pull up reports in a specific range, such as all reports from 2700-2800. The Report archive also has a search tool; this tool is very fast, but not very powerful. It only searches the information displayed in the table, so (for example) searching for the name Willewyn will not produce Report 2907 on Willewyn Glasswrytha, because that report is listed in the table under the report name Glasswright. The advanced search tool is slower, but much more powerful. It allows you to search for words, parts of words, and combinations of words. When the Academy writes about a specific name, it encloses the name in angle brackets, so the advanced search tool also allows you to search only for words or parts of words enclosed in angle brackets.
See also the Academy FAQ for Heralds, http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/heraldsfaq.html and the Academy FAQ for Clients, http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/ SCA Rules for Submissions and Name Precedents
More important for registration than for research, but the rules & precedents do cite some useful data. Online System for Commentary And Response (OSCAR) OSCAR collects SCA name and device submissions. You can search OSCAR to find documentation that was previously submitted with a name or a device. The SCA O&A The fact that a name has been registered doesn't prove it's authentic! But the O&A is still central to our game. The Middle English Dictionary Useful for finding spellings of words from our period. Includes surname examples. The Anglo-Norman Dictionary Dictionary of the Scots Language Records of the Parliaments of Scotland Full text of Scottish parliamentary decisions, from 1235 to 1707. Includes many Scots personal names and place names. The Problem Names Project The site introduction reads: The articles in the Problem Names Project discuss various names and naming practices about which there are common misconceptions concerning their use in the Middle Ages or Renaissance. For example, some names and naming practices that many people today believe to be medieval are purely modern. Other names and naming practices which were used in one medieval culture are now mistakenly believed to have been used in others. Other common misconceptions concern the medieval pronunciation of a name or whether it was used by men or women in the Middle Ages. If there are common misconceptions about any aspect of the pre-1600 use of a name or naming practice, it may be a "Problem Name". Some Heraldic and Onomastic Books Found for Free Online http://slumberland.org/sca/articles/onlineheraldicbooklinks.html Google TricksWith www.google.com , you can:
books.google.com
Tricks for Finding a Medieval Spelling in Google Books:
Other Useful SitesThe Medieval Heraldry Archive, http://www.s-gabriel.org/heraldry/ Medieval Names Archive Search Engine (beta)
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
Perseus under Philologic
Wikipedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/
Omniglot
Library TricksInterlibrary Loan Find out how your library's interlibrary loan system works, and take advantage of it! (Sometimes another library will lend you a book which your library only has in the reference section . . .) Site Subscriptions Certain websites are only available with an (expensive) paid subscription. Of these, some of the most interesting to an SCA member are the Oxford English Dictionary: which lists historical forms of English words and Early English Books Online: which has scanned images of English printed books. Just Walk In Most academic libraries will let community members browse the stacks (at worst, you might have to sign in). Some also extend borrowing privileges to alumni for a fee. You may also be able to suborn a local college student. Asking for HelpMailing Lists Sca-hrlds Kingdom Mailing Lists |
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