The following is forwarded for the consideration of the members of the
list. It merits careful consideration.
CED
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Douglas Richardson
Date: 1999/10/26
Subject: Re: Medieval First Names
To:
Hi Marshall:
There is a list of early English medieval names in an Appendix at the
back of one of the volumes of Complete Peerage. The list is
adequare
but far from complete. Regarding the name, Elizabeth, I can tell you
that the names Elizabeth and Isabel were interchangeable in the
medieval period. But, I have never seen the name "Liess," either by
itself or used in place of Elizabeth. I'm also not aware that "Joes"
was the medieval name for John. Perhaps your source was thinking of
Johannes which is one of the Latin forms for John.
A more common problem with handling medieval names is leaving women's
names in the Latin form, whereas men's names are almost always
modernized and Anglicized. The woman's name Emma was originally Em,
Emm, or Emme. The name Ela is found as Ele. The name Ida is found
as
Ide (or even Ede). Matilda was actually Maud (and other cognant
forms). And, so forth. As best I can tell, women's names did not
bear
a final "a" in the vernacular in medieval times. Cecily for example
is
found in the vernacular as Cecily/Cicely in medieval times,
occasionally as Cecile, but never as Cecilia. Regardless, I find
most
editors translate medieval English documents from the Latin into
English and they leave the final "a" on the women's name as if that
was
the original vernacular form. This would probably not be the case if
documents in the vernacular were not so rare in this period and if
Latin forms of women's names had not become popular in later periods.
Other peculiarities exist, such as the slow transition of Alianor (or
Alianore) to Eleanor which took place about 1450, and the transition
of
Reynold to Reginald which took place about the same time. I like
Reynold and I use that form in my records before 1450. The woman's
name Katherine seems to have been spelled with an initial "K' for
centuries and about 1500, you start seeing the form "Catherine"
appear
in the records. And, there is always my favorite Latin form,
Sedzilia,
which was the name of the mother of Aline de Gay, wife of Alan
Basset.
It took me a long time before I reazlized it was just another form of
Cecily.
People are still unsure of how to translate some Latin form, one
examply being the man's name, Bogo. If it is translated at all, it
appears as Bew, or even Bevis. For simplicitity sake, I use Bew.
You'd be surprised at how many competent medieval historians stumble
over that one. Another problem child is the Latin form of the man's
name Otho. That name was actually Otes in the vernacular. Modern
historians usually go with Otho, not realizing that is incorrect.
As
such, one still sees Bogo de Knoville and Bogo de Clare in modern
books, but that sort of problem is rare these days.
One last item: By and large, nicknames were not employed. At least
they are not mentioned in the records. The only nickname I find
prior
to 1600 with any regularity is Harry for Henry. Other that that one
exception, people seemed to use their exact given names in the
records.
I trust this answers your question. Best of luck in your research.
All for now. Douglas Richardson