ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2909 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2909 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * 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. * * * ************************************************* 26 Aug 2004 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if <Yllaria of Richmond> or <Yllaria of Whitby> is an appropriate name for an English noblewoman living in the 13th or 14th century. Here is the information we have found. <Yllaria> is a Latin form of a name which we find in 1200, 1203, 1205, and 1210. [1] Other spellings that we found in your period include the following: [1] Illaria 1199, 1219 Eilaria 1200 Eularia 1200, 1212 Ylaria 1208 Elaria 1212 Hillaria 1219, 1273 Ilaria 1219 Based on these examples, we can recommend some form of this name for the first quarter of your period. What form that is, however, is a very difficult question, because even the history of the name is in doubt. It has traditionally been assumed that <Illaria>, <Ilaria>, <Yllaria>, and the like represent Latin <Hilaria>, the feminine counterpart of <Hilarius>, but despite its superficial attractiveness, there are difficulties with this view. First, although there is evidence that <Hilaria> was used in the first millennium CE in what is now France, possibly even as late as ca.1100, we have been unable to find any unambiguous evidence that it remained in use or was taken to England. [2, 3] This is in contrast to the masculine <Hilarius>, which appears to have remained in continuous use in France in the forms <Hilari> and especially <Hilaire> and was common in England through the 16th century. [3, 4, 5, 6] On the other hand, we know that <Eulalia>, the name of an early 4th century Spanish martyr, gave rise to an Old French feminine name, Latinized <Eularia>, that survives in the surname <Aulaire>. [6, 7, 8] The citations of <Eularia> listed above show that this Old French name, whatever its precise form may have been, was taken to England. Moreover, the person whose name was recorded in 1200 as <Eularia Trussebut> is also in record as <Eilaria>, <Yllaria>, and <Ylaria> in the period 1200-1208. [6, 9] Finally, the phonetic changes required to transform <Eularia> into <Eilaria> and thence into <Ylaria> are much more compatible with early Middle English developments than the reverse changes, so it is much likelier that <Eilaria>, <Yllaria>, and <Ylaria> are modifications of <Eularia> than that <Eularia> is an odd variant of <Ylaria>. [10] This leaves us with just two possible scenarios: (A) Both <Eularia> and <Hilaria> were brought to England after the Conquest and that by about 1200 they were beginning to be conflated, both typically appearing in such forms as <Illaria> and <Ylaria>. (B) Only <Eularia> was brought to England, <Hilaria> having gone out of use in France too early to join it, but under the influence of early Middle English and the model of the fairly common masculine names <Hilaire> and <Hilari> it tended to become <Illaria> and the like. The chief argument against (A) is the lack of any evidence for <Hilaria> in France much after 1100. It may also be significant, however, that the masculine English name derived from <Hilarius> tends to retain the initial <H>, while the feminine name rarely does so: this is entirely natural if even such spellings as <Ilaria> and <Yllaria> derive from an original <Eularia>. Against (B) is the fact that spellings of the <Ilaria> and <Yllaria> type somewhat outnumber <Eularia> and <Eilaria> spellings in the records available to us. This, however, is to be expected if the name was never very common and was in the process of developing from <Eularia> to <Ilaria>. In short, the evidence favors (B), though (A) cannot be ruled out. In either case, however, it is highly probable that spellings like <Yllaria> and <Ilaria> represent a vernacular pronunciation whose first syllable is very similar to the word <ill>; it's the rest of the name that requires some reconstruction. Latin <-aria>, when not an independent suffix, normally yields Old French <-aire>, which in Anglo-Norman was generally pronounced approximately \EH-r@\, where \@\ stands for the sound of <a> in <sofa> and <about>. [13] It is most likely, therefore, that <Yllaria> represents a name whose vernacular pronunciation was roughly \ih-LEH-r@\; the most likely Anglo-Norman spelling is <Ilaire>, though such variants as <Illaire>, <Ylaire>, and <Yllaire> are also possible. There are at least two places named Whitby, one in Cheshire and one in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The place in Cheshire is recorded as <Witeberia> 1096x1101 [16], 1150, <Witebia> 1096x1101, <Wytebi>, <Wyteby>, <Witebi>, and <Witeby> 1188-1315 [17], <Whiteby> 1241-1547, and variants <Whyteby>, <Quiteby>, <Quyteby>, <Whitby> from 1402 on. [14] The Whitby in North Riding is recorded as <Wytebi>, <Wyteby>, <Witebi>, and <Witeby> 1086-1298, <Whitby> from 1138 on, <Whiteby> and <Whyteby> from ca.1150x60 to 1361, and <Quiteby> 13th c. [14] Richmond is also in North Riding; we find it recorded as <Richemund> or <Richemunde> 1108x1114 and <Richemunt> 1167. [14,15] <Yllaria de Witebi> (or <Wytebi>, <Witeby> or <Wyteby>) and <Yllaria de Richemund> or <Yllarie de Richemunde> are fine names for the first half of your period. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again should you have any further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Juliana de Luna, and Juetta Copin. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael & Talan Gwynek -- References: [1] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/ [2] 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). II:60a [3] Perouas, L., B. Barrie\re, B., J. Boutier; J.-C. Peyronnet, & J. Tricard, _Le/onard, Marie, Jean et les Autres: Les Pre/noms en Limousin depuis un Mille/naire (Paris: E/ditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1984). p. 50-1 [4] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987). s.n. <Hilaire> [5] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980). s.n. <Hillary> [6] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). s.n. <Hillary> [7] Dauzat, op. cit., s.n. <Aulaire> [8] This may seem a bit odd, but a parallel development occurred in Spain, where the name developed a variant <Olaria>. Tibo/n, Gutierre. Diccionario etimolo/gico comparado de nombres propios de persona (Mexico City: Union Tipografica Editorial Hispano Americana, 1956); s.n. <Eulalia>. [9] Ibid. s.n. <Trussbutt> [10] In rough outline, by about 1200 the Old French spelling <eu> already represented a sound similar to the one that it represents in modern French. This sound also existed in early Middle English, but it was in the process of developing into \eh\. Finally, this sound, when it occurred in an unstressed initial syllable, had a tendency to become \ih\. [11, 12] [11] Pope, M.K., _From Latin to Modern French_ (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1966), Section 542 [12] Moore, Samuel, rev. by Albert H. Marckwardt. Historical Outlines of English Sounds and Inflections (Ann Arbor: George Wahr Publishing Co., 1964); p. 66 note 65; p. 72. [13] Pope, op. cit., Sections 26, 1157 [14] _Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society_, Edited by Victor Watts, Edited in association with John Insley, Margaret Gelling (Cambridge University Press: January 2004) s.nn Richmond, Whitby [15] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place- names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). s.n. Richmond [16] This notation represents a single source with a date that somewhere in the range 1096-1101. [17] This notation represents multiple sources from the interval in question and, in particular, implies sources from 1188 and 1315. =================================================================== Correction by Aryanhwy, 15 Sep 2008: Fixed footnote in paragraph on <Whitby> from [4] to [14].