[antir-heralds] Name Help/Style Check

[Jillian Bower]

Oh -ick- it truncated the first part of that message.... let's try this again.

St. Gabriel report 2355 (http://www.s-gabriel.org/2355) discusses various feminine versions of <Stephen>, such as <Steva>, <Stefania>, and <Estefania>. This might be a good place to start if she is really attached to <Stephanie>.

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

This might be useful to you as a starting point.

-Àine

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: earth.goddess at comcast.net (Jillian Bower)
> 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
>