ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3142
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3142
************************************

3 Aug 2006
From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael 

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You wanted to know when and where the feminine name <Adelaide> was
used before modern times.  Here is the information we have found.

<Adelaide> is a modern French and English form of the Old West
Germanic name <Adalhaid>.  While we have not found <Adelaide> before
modern times, various forms of <Adalhaid> can be found in 9th-12th
century records from France, including the following: [4]

  Adalheid     a. 830
  Adelaidis    a. 878, a. 1050, a. 1075, 11th C.
  Adeleydis    a. 894
  Adalais      a. 898, a. 953, a. 996
  Alheydis     10th C
  Aelaidis     10th-11th C
  Adheleidis   a. 925
  Aelaydis     a. 929
  Adaledis     a. 934
  Adelais      a. 940, 11th C
  Adaleidis    a. 956-84
  Adilis       a. 965-66
  Adelaida     a. 962-73
  Adalehidis   a. 966
  Adaledis     a. 975-93
  Adeleidis    a. 988
  Aales        11th C
  Adalaizis    a. 1011
  Adalasia     a. 1025
  Adeledis     v. 1027
  Addeladis    a. 1030
  Adeladis     a. 1032-64, a. 1037-64, v. 1070
  Adalais      a. 1077
  Alaidis      a. 1085
  Adelix       a. 1097
  Aalaida      a. 1111
  Adilidis     a. 1113
  Aalidis      a. 1122

With the exception of <Adalheid>, all of these names are either the
traditional Latinized Germanic forms (with minor variations), more or
less Latinized Old French forms, or vernacular Old French forms.

This name has a dual history in French, a popular development and a
learned development.  In the popular development the Latinized form
<Adelaidis> gave rise to the Old French names <Adelais> and <Adeliz>,
which were originally pronounced something like \ah-dh@-LICE\ and
\ah-dh@-LEETS\, respectively.  (Here \dh\ stands for the sound of <th>
in <this> and <other>, not the sound in <thin> and <ether>, and \@\
stands for the sound of <a> in <sofa> and <about>.)  Normal processes
in the historical development of the French language led in due course
to a complete loss of the original <d>, not just a weakening to \dh\,
and <Adeliz> came to be pronounced something like \ah-@-LEETS\; like
<Aaliz> and <Aeliz> represent this stage of development.  By later
changes in Old French the pronunciation changed to \ah-LEETS\ and then
\ah-LEECE\, stages represented by the spellings <Aliz> and <Alis>,
respectively.  (<Adelais> underwent similar changes.)  The end result
was the familiar name <Alice>, forms of which were quite popular in
England and France throughout the later Middle Ages. [1,2]

In the normal course of events the Germanic name <Adalhaid> cannot
have developed into <Adelaide>, either in French or in English.  There
are two possible explanations for the existence of the modern French
and English names:

    * Something approximating the old Germanic name was kept
      alive throughout the Old French period as a learned
      form alongside the vernacular form whose development
      followed the normal course of Old French sound
      changes.  This is what happened with <Margareta>: the
      normally developed popular form is <Margery> (French
      <Margerie>), while English <Margaret> and French
      <Marguerite> are the result of learned preservation of
      forms closer to the Latin. [5,6]

    * Only vernacular forms of the name were used during the
      Middle Ages, and something more closely approximating
      the old Germanic name was reintroduced later.  An
      English example of this type is the name <Ethelbert>,
      a 19th century reintroduction of an Old English name
      whose normal vernacular development was <Albert>. [7]

The evidence that we've been able to examine points towards the second
possibility, but our sources are too incomplete to justify more than a
tentative conclusion.

If you would like further information about naming practices in either
medieval France or England, or any pronunciations not provided in this
letter, please don't hesitate to write us again and we'll be happy to
help.

We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you'll write
again if any part was unclear.  Research and commentary on this letter
was provided by Adelaidis de Bello Monte, Talan Gwynek, and Guaire mac
Guaire.

For the Academy,
Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 03 August 2006

--
References:

[1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian
Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Adelaide.

[2] ibid., s.n. Alice.

[3] Academy of S. Gabriel Report #2688
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2688

[4] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de
l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972), I:16b

[5] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et
Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Marguerite.

[6] Withycombe, op. cit., s.n. Margery.

[7] ibid., s.nn. Albert, Ethelbert.