ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1785 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1785 ************************************ 3 Nov 1999 From: Alan Terlep Greetings, Here's the information we found about , which you wanted to use as a name from the Basque country in the period between 1300 and 1500. We weren't able to find anything like in the Basque language. However, we did find the names and the rather less likely in other languages spoken in the Iberian peninsula. A Basque woman from your period could probably have been given either of these names. Our sources for Basque are very limited, but doesn't look anything like the Basque names we've seen. We do know that doesn't follow any of the known patterns for Greek names, and we're sure that it isn't related to . is a post-period name that derives from , which ultimately derives from the Greek name . (1) In your period, Castilian (Spanish) names were common in the Basque-speaking areas of the Iberian peninsula. (2) We're not completely sure that a Basque- speaking woman would have used them, but it is likely that Basque people did use names from Castilian. (3) So, we looked at names that began with from your period in Castilian and other Iberian languages. We found two: and . was a relatively common name in late-period Iberia. We found examples of it from the 15th and 16th centuries. (4,5) We also found the spelling in 14th-century Portugal. (6) We found references to and the more common spelling in 15th-century Portugal. (7) We also found that this name, with the spelling , was a fairly common women's name in the 1200's in your region. (8) By your period, would have been an unusual and archaic spelling of , but it is not out of the question. So, and could possibly have been used by a Basque- speaking woman between 1300 and 1500. Of the two, was significantly more common. Juliana de Luna, Pedro de Alcazar, Catalana di Neri, Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, Aryanhwy verch Catmael, Arval Benicoeur, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Your servant, Alan Fairfax Academy of S. Gabriel November 3, 1999 (1) Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983), s.n. Leander. (2) Zumalaca/rregui, Angeles Li/bano and Jose/ A. Li/bano, "La Anthroponimia en Alava, Guipuzcoa y Vizcaya en los siglos X al XIII", pp.259-281 in _Antroponimia y Sociedad: Sistemas de identificacio/n hispano-cristianos en los siglos IX a XIII_ (Valladolid, Spain: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela and Universidad de Valladolid, 1995). (3) Lists of names taken from the official records of areas that were largely Basque-speaking contain few or no clearly Basque names. Either Basque people were using Spanish given names, or almost all Basques were ignored in official records. It is possible that all Basques were simply overlooked, but we think it is more likely that some of the people with Spanish names in the records are Basque. See Carrasco Pe/rez, Juan _La Poblacio/n de Navarra en el Siglo XIV_ (Pamplona, Spain: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, S.A, 1973). (4) De La Torre, Antonio and E. A. de la Torre, eds., _Cuentas de Gonzalo de Baeza Tesorero de Isabel la Cato/lica_ (Madrid: Biblioteca "Reyes Cato/licos", 1956). (5) Elsbeth Anne Roth, _16th-century Spanish Women's Names_ (WWW: Self-published, 1998) [URL:http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kvs/fnames.html]. (6) Levin, Craig. _Portuguese Names of the 14th Century_ Unpublished manuscript, 1997. (7) ibid. (8) Piel, Joseph M., and Kremer, Dieter, _Hispano-gotisches Namenbuch_ (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universita:tsverlag, 1976).