Amie Gaveston's name

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.:Nichol:.

Amie Gaveston's name

Legg inn av .:Nichol:. » 04 nov 2004 21:45:20

Back in Jan. 2001, Brad Verity posted the following:

Joan of Acre's 5 documented daughters, Eleanor, Margaret and
Elizabeth

de Clare, plus Mary and Joan de Monthermer, all have the names of
their
mother's sisters and the lady herself. Along this vein, Eleanor de
Clare's daughters were given the names Isabella, Eleanor, Margaret,
Joan
and Elizabeth (Despenser); Margaret de Clare's were named Joan (de
Gaveston) and Margaret (d'Audley); Elizabeth de Clare's were Isabella
(de Verdun) and Elizabeth (d'Amory); Mary de Monthermer's was either
Isabella or Elizabeth (Countess of Fife).

In the case of Isabella Despenser, I would guess Queen Isabella was
the
naming inspiration. In the case of Isabella of Fife, it could either
have been the Queen or maybe Isabella, the second wife of Ralph de
Monthermer.

The name Amy (or Amicia, as she's sometimes called) seems to be a
unique
occurence for the family naming pattern. Has there been any
suggestions
as to why?

Best regards, --------------Brad Verity

I do not claim to be an expert in 13th/14th century onomastics. But
this posting on the origin of Amie Gaveston's name caught my eye.
Putting aside the alternate theories of Amie's parentage, and just
dealing with the theory that she was an illegitimate daughter of
Margaret de Clare, it would seem "Amie" is an unusual choice of name.
As far as I can tell, no one with this name appears in Margaret's
immediate family, though of course we have no idea of Amie's
(supposed) biological father's origins.

However, in about 1300, Margaret's uncle Edward II fathered an
illegitimate son named Adam, which is equally as unusual for this
family. A couple of centuries later we see Antigone, the bastard
daughter of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, whose exotic Greek name
harkens to images of perfect filial devotion. Isolated cases, yes, and
I hardly claim to have done any in-depth examination of naming
patterns among the illegitimate children of noble and royal parents,
but both interesting examples nonetheless. Could medieval parents have
felt freer to bestow strange names upon their illegitimate offspring?
Or are these examples misleading?

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