[antir-heralds] Name Help/Style Check

[Jillian Bower]

http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?2355+0 discusses several variants of the feminine form of <Stephen> in southern France, among them <Estefania>. This might be a good resource for her if she really likes the name Stephanie.

Some surnames from the same period in France can be found here: http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/saintfloursurnames.html

Just a thought for a starting point :)

-Àine

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Britt <tierna.britt at gmail.com>
> >   Stephanie of the Sanguine Rose.
> 
> Lesson #1 - a client comes to you with a name. ask them where they got
> it and what do they think makes it medieval.  That saves the 'treasure
> hunt' of heralds trying to justify random names for period
> plausibility (a practice Daniel de Lincoln compares to driving to a
> random corner of the city when you're hungry on the chance that
> there's a restaurant there). If they have a source it gives us a place
> to start. If they have documentation, it might even give us the place
> to finish, as well. :)
> 
> My gut reaction:
> Problematic.
> 
> I'm still looking for Stephanie. It's a misconception that it's a
> period practice to feminize masculine names for female use. Plenty of
> stuff happened in the 1800s that was never done before (jewel names,
> flower names, feminized masculine names) so this might be trouble.
> Right now I'm running through English sources at the Academy of Saint
> Gabriel's Medieval Names Archive - http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/
> Bookmark and keep, it is THE best resource for names out there and a
> totally terrific place to send clients.
> 
> Nothing. Not even close.
> 
> Withycombe does not list this as anything other than a feminization,
> so that's no help.
> 
> There are only four total registrations of Stephanie in the SCA and
> the last was registered in March of 1990 (never a good sign).  I
> looked it up:
> Stephanie of Garrow's Loch. Name only. Stephanie is her mundane given name.
> 
> That's even worse.  Mundane name allowance.
> 
> Okay, Stephania is apparently period.
> Stephania Bérat was registered in September of 2004 without comment.
> Now we need to figure out what language that is. I know it isn't
> English or Scots, I was searching on 'Steph-' patterns.
> 
> Not Russian, apparently, but there are some really lovely variants,
> dated and documented.  you might point your client at
> http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/
> The byname might be possible with Russian.  Yes. By Laurel precedent
> mixing Russian and English in a name is acceptable, but a step from
> period practice. So a second step away would make the name
> unregisterable.
> 
> Aha! Stephania is Polish. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/walraven/polish/
> Not registerable with an English element, however.
> 
> The 'of the' is also a problem.  It's implied as a locative, someplace
> someone would have actually come from. She likely didn't crawl out of
> a rose.  There's a romantic fantasy vibe here that's going to be
> difficult to overcome.  To justify this name the following have to be
> documented:
> 
> Names of the 'de' (of) pattern from things that aren't places.  This
> could possibly work as a house name/mark, though. remember Anne of
> Green Gables?  I think that pattern is attested in period at some
> point. I'm certain it is in German, I'm unsure how it might have come
> about in English.
> 
> That 'sanguine rose' is a descriptive that would have been used in
> period. just because sanguine is not a period heraldic tincture
> doesn't mean it's not likely a period color, but you'll have to prove
> it.  The OED is the definitive source.
> 
> Now, having opined at length on that I must confess I'm not good
> enough at this to help.  Ursula is, and should be along shortly to
> supply answers rather than just random speculation.  I believe a few
> other good names folk are available, as well.
> 
> - Teceangl
> _______________________________________________
> antir-heralds mailing list
> antir-heralds at antir.sca.org
> http://missives.antir.sca.org/mailman/listinfo/antir-heralds