ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2426 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2426 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: This is one of the Academy's earliest * * reports. We are not confident that * * these early reports are accurate. * * Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 13 Dec 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know whether <Gassion de Beaumarchais> and <Delesse de Beaumarchais> are appropriate names for a man and woman living in Dijon in 1430-1460. Here is the information we have found. For most of our period, northern and southern France used different languages. The language in northern France, including Paris, was French (also called "Langue d'Oil"), while the southern language was Occitan (also called "Langue d'Oc" and "Provencal"). Occitan is a different Romance language, most closely related to Catalan and sharing some features with Spanish and Italian. There was a good deal of overlap between the two cultures, and accordingly, we find many names recorded in both languages, though the Occitan forms of names were frequently very different from the French forms. Some names, however, were used in only one language or the other. <Gassion> is a form of the Spanish name <Garcia> which we find recorded in late 15th century Bordeaux [1]. We also find the name <Gassio> recorded in 14th century Be/arn, in the Pyrenees [2]. (Here the slash represents an accent over the preceding letter.) <Gassion> would be not unexpected as a diminutive of <Gassio>. We have not found <Gassion> or any other forms of <Garcia> recorded outside of the Occitan-speaking areas of France, and based on our research, we do not think that it is likely. Accordingly, we cannot recommend it as a good recreation for a man from Dijon, which is in the French-speaking part of France [3]. It would be a fine name for a 15th century man from southern France. It was pronounced \gah-SYOH~\ or \gah-SYOH~N\; here \Y\ is the consonantal sound of the letter <y> and \OH~\ represents a nasalized vowel, as in the French <bon> 'good'. <Delesse> appears in the same set of late 15th century documents from Bordeaux, but only as a surname [1]. We have not found it used as a given name, and it would be unusual for that to happen: Surnames were rarely used as given names in late medieval French. We recommend you choose a different name. You mentioned that you would be interested in a feminine given name that began with <D> and preserved the sound of <Delesse>; unfortunately, we have seen no given names with that pronunciation [4]. In your period, the byname <de Beaumarchais> could either have been inherited or used literally. That is, the son of Pierre de Beaumarchais might have been called Jean de Beaumarchais even if neither of them lived in that town; and Jean from Beaumarchais might have been identified the same way regardless of his father's name. There are several towns by that name; one is located near Vende/e, north of Bordeaux, so <Gassion de Beaumarchais> is a plausible name [5]. A better match with the Occitan <Gassion> would be the town of <Beaumarche\s>, in Gers, in southwest France [6]. The backslash in this name represents an accent grave over the preceding letter, which would not have been used in your period. <Gassion de Beaumarches> would be an excellent name for the 15th century. Either byname is pronounced \d@ boe-mar-shay\, where \@\ represents the sound of <a> in <soda> and <about>, \boe\ rhymes with <doe> and \ay\ rhymes with <day>. In some cases, especially if the next word in the sentence began with a vowel, it might be pronounced \d@ boe-mar-shays\. In summary, <Gassion de Beaumarches> is an excellent name for a 15th century man from southern France; <Gassion de Beaumarchais> is also possible. We do not believe that either name is plausible for a man in Dijon. We cannot recommend the byname <Delesse> as a given name, and we do not know of any appropriate feminine given names beginning in <Del->. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Julie Stampnitzky, Talan Gwynek, Will Dekne and Zenobia Naphtali. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 13 December 2001 References: [1] Aryanhwy merch Catmael and Talan Gwynek, "Names Found in Commercial Documents from Bordeaux, 1470-1520" (WWW: privately published, 2000), s.nn. Gassion Ducamin, Johannes Delesse. http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/bordeaux.html [2] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Gassie. [3] The most similar-sounding name we have found in the French-speaking region of France is the unrelated name <Garsille> or <Garsire>; we've found these names only in the 13th century, mostly in northeastern France and southwestern Germany. If you would like more information on these names, please write again. [4] The only name we have found beginning with <Del-> is <Deloys>, recorded as the name of a chambermaid in Paris in 1292. We have not found any other examples of this name, and we are reluctant to recommend it. The 1292 Census has many scribal oddities and errors. <Deloys> could be a scribal error for the common name <Heloys>. It could also be the chambermaid's surname; <Loys> was an early spelling of the name <Louis>, and the daughter of a man named <Loys> might well be known as <de Loys>. If it was an accurate citation of the name, it must have been a very rare name. In any case, <Deloys>, pronounced roughly \d@-LWESS\, would not be appropriate for the Occitan-speaking regions of France, nor would we recommend it in French-speaking regions as late as the 15th century based on a single 13th century example. [5] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963). s.n. Beaumarchais, they identify places called <Beaumarchais> in the departements Corse-du-Sud (southern Corsica), Eure (in Normandy), Eure-et-Loire (just south of Eure), Indre-et-Loire (a bit south of that), Seine-et-Marne (SE of Paris), and Vende/e (on the Atlantic, north of Bordeaux). We found no town called <Beaumarchais> near Dijon. [6] Dauzat & Rostaing, s.n. Beaumarche\s, they indicate that the city (in Gers, in SW France) was founded in 1290 by Eustache de Beaumarchais, who was originally from the north of France where there was several hamlets called <Beaumarchais>. The change of <Beaumarchais> to <Beaumarches> may be an example of how a French name was adapted into Occitan. Note that the spelling <Beaumarche\s> is the modern form. We are fairly certain that the accent would not have been used in your period, but we have found only modern examples, so we cannot say whether <Beaumarches> is a period form of the town's name. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Arval, 10 Sept 2006: Corrected the spelling of <Beaumarch\es> (which we gave originally in note [6] as <Beaumarche/s>) and clarified the text regarding the accent.