ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2355
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2355
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03 Oct 2001
From: Ursula Whitcher 

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked for a feminine form of <Stephen> and a surname related to horses 
appropriate for southern France near Italy, around 1300.  Here is what we 
found.

In your period, France was not unified politically, culturally, or 
linguistically.  One of the most significant divisions was between the 
langue d'oil or French, spoken in the north, and the langue d'oc, also 
called Occitan or Provencal, spoken in the south. These were different 
languages, not just dialects of the same language, and names in them were 
quite different.  Since you said you were interested in southern France, we 
focused on Occitan names.

We found several different feminine forms of <Stephen> in use during your 
time period.  A fourteenth-century tax roll has three instances of 
<Steva>.[1]  We believe this name was pronounced \STAY-v@\, where the \@\ 
represents the sound of the <a> in <about> and <soda>. (This sound is 
called schwa.)[7]  We also found one person named <Stevenessa>, pronounced 
\stay-ven-ESS-s@\, and a troubadour poem about a character named 
<Estefania>, pronounced \ay-stay-FAH-nya\.  Although we don't have exact 
dates for these two forms, both were recorded in southern France close to 
your period.[2, 3]  Another possibility is <Estevana>, pronounced 
\ay-stay-VAHN-@\.  We believe this is a correct Occitan form of a name 
found in Latin documents as <Stephana>.[5, 6]

The Occitan byname <Caval> means "horse", while <Cavallier> means 
"horseman" or "knight".  We believe that <Caval>, pronounced \kah-VAHL\, 
and <Cavalliera>, pronounced \kah-vah-LYAIR-@\, are the appropriate forms 
of these names for a woman living around 1300.[4]  During your time period, 
inherited bynames were still unusual.  Many bynames were literal, so that a 
man named <Jaume Cavallier> could have been a knight or an accomplished 
horseman.  A woman might have been given a byname in the same way, or she 
might have shared her husband's or father's byname.  Thus, <Steva Caval> 
could have been the wife of a horse-trader; <Estefania Cavalliera> might 
have been the daughter of a knight, or a skilled horsewoman in her own right.

You may want to consider another possibility: a name that sounds like the 
word for "horse".  In medieval France, it was quite common for a family to 
adopt arms using a charge whose name sounded similar to the family's 
surname, such as a lion for a family <de Lyons>.  This practice was called 
"canting".  There is a town in Vaucluse, near Avignon, whose name was 
recorded as <Cavalho> or <Cavaillo> in poetry of your period.  (Both 
<Cavalho and <Cavaillo> would have been pronounced \cah-VAH-lyoh\.) [3]  A 
noblewoman whose family held lands in or near that town might have been 
called <Steva de Cavalho>, pronounced \STAY-v@ day cah-VAH-lyoh\.  Using 
that name and using a horse as the central charge in your arms would be 
excellent re-creation.

Putting things together, we find that <Steva Caval> is a fine name for a 
woman living in southern France around 1300.  Other combinations, such as 
<Steva Cavalliera> or <Stevenessa de Cavalho>, would also be appropriate.

I was assisted in writing this report by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Arval 
Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Juliana de Luna.

For the Academy,

Ursula Georges
3 Oct. 2001

References:

[1]  Arlette Higoinet-Nadal, Les Comptes de la Taille et les Sources de 
l'Histoire De/mographique de Pe/rigueux au XIVe Sie\cle (Paris: E/cole 
Pratique des Haute E/tudes - VIe Section, Centre de Re/cherches 
Historiques: De/mographique et Socie/te/s IX; S.E.V.P.E.N., 1965)  3 
instances of <Steva> in 1367; many examples of the masculine <Steve> and 
<Esteve> from 1339 to 1400.

[2]  Compan, Andre/, _E/tude d'Anthroponymie Provenc,ale: Les Noms de 
Personne dans le Comte/ de Nice aux XIIe, XIVe, et XVe Sie\cles_, thesis at 
the Universite/ de Paris IV, Dec. 1975 (Paris: Librarie Honore Champion,
1976) p. 801 s.n. Steve.

[3]  Chambers, Frank M., _Proper Names in the Lyrics of the Troubadours_ 
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971).  s.nn. Cavalho, 
Estefania.  The modern name for the town of Cavalho is Cavaillon.

[4]  Compan.  s.nn. Caval, Cavallier.  <Guillielmus Cavallus> 1284 and 
<Petrus Cavalus> 1303;  <P. Canallorius ou Cavallerius> 1296 and
<Jaume Cavallier> 1468.

[5]  Anne Brenon, _Le petit livre aventureux des pre/noms occitans au temps du
Catharisme_ (Tolosa: Loubatie\res, 1992)  s.n. Stephana.  Brenon gives 
<Estevana> as the probable but unattested Occitan form.

[6]  Anne Brenon, _Les Femmes Cathares_ (Paris: Librairie Acade/mique 
Perrin, 1992) p. 325.  A woman from Toulouse whose first name was recorded 
in Latin as <Stephana> was condemned for heresy in 1307.

[7]  The stress given in these pronunciations is an extrapolation largely 
based on our knowledge of modern Occitan dialects.