ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2588
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2588
************************************

22 Nov 2002
From: Josh Mittleman 


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Rebekah> is an appropriate name for a French woman
living around 1400, and you asked us to suggest surnames that refer to
a dog in some way.  Here is what we have found.

Only a few Old Testament names were used in medieval Europe.  Some
were common among Christians -- <Eve>, <Adam>, <David> -- and others
among Jews -- <Esther>, <Hannah>, <Sarah> -- but most were not used at
all in Europe before the late 16th century, when many more became
fashionable among Protestants in England.  As far as we've discovered,
<Rebecca> was exclusively a Jewish name in most of Europe until well
after our period.  More precisely, the Hebrew name used by Jews is
better transliterated as <Rivkah> or <Rifka>; <Rebecca> is a Latinized
form of that name, and <Rebekah> is a modern spelling based on the
Greek form of the name and popularized by the Authorized Version of
the Bible [1].

We've found one example of a French Jew with this name, recorded as
<Re/beca> in Aix 1480, and several other possible examples recorded as
<Rica> 1329, <Riqua> 1341, etc. [7].  (The slash represents an acute
accent on the preceding letter.)  We have also found examples of the
name in Jewish communities in 14th century Nuremburg, 16th century
Frankfurt, 15th century Marseille, and 14th century Navarre [2, 3],
among other places.  It was probably as common in Jewish communities
in France as elsewhere in western Europe.  So if you want a name
suitable for a Franco-Jewish woman around 1400, <Rivkah> is a
reasonable choice, and you could write it in French as <Re/beca>.  The
Greek-influenced spelling <Rebekah> is very unlikely as it is not
consistent with French spelling rules.


We found a variety of French surnames that refer to dogs in one way or
another.  All our examples come from Picardy, in northwestern France;
but only because our best source on the subject comes from that region
[4].  With a few exceptions that are marked with asterisks below, we
see no reason why the same names couldn't have been used elsewhere in
northern France.

  le Chien ("the dog")
  la Chienne ("the bitch")
  Chiene  (probably used for the wife of a man called <Chien>)
  le Kien * (spellings in <K> and <Qu> are typical of the northwest)
  le Quien *
  Chanaille ("the mutt", used for a coarse, bawdy person)
  Caignon (this and the following are diminutives)
  Caignet
  Cagnet
  Caingnet

  la Doge * (derived from the English "dog") 
  le Waignon * (from the name of a type of sheepdog)
  li Waignonele * (these two were probably found only in the northwest)
  Mastinet (from the name of a type of guard dog)
  Matine/e 
  Gous (a type of dog with floppy ears that barks alot)
  Clabaud (same as the previous)
  Levrier ("greyhound", denotes speed or agility)

  des Quiens * ("of or with the dogs")
  Desquens * (same meaning)

Many of these bynames could equally have been used to describe
someone's appearance or behavior, or to identify his profession
(dog-trainer, dog-merchant).  If you particularly want a name that
means "the bitch", then we recommend <la Chienne>.

If your goal is to choose a name that gives you a good excuse for
using a dog in your arms, then another approach you might consider is
to take a name that sounds a bit like the French word <chien>.  The
practice of taking a heraldic charge whose name sounds like your
surname is called "canting", and was very common in medieval France.
For example, you might take the common surname <du Chesne>, which
could have been used to mean "from/at the oak-tree" or "from [a place
called] Le Chesne" [5].  That name sounds enough like <chien> to
support a very authentic cant.

In her own community, a Jewish woman was probably most often
identified as her father's daughter.  However, Christians would have
identified her with a name that fit their own naming customs, and we
have examples of French Jewish women identified with names very
similar in form to <Re/beca la Chienne> and <Re/beca du Chesne> [6].
The first three are descriptive:

  Rose l'Englesche "Rose the Englishwoman"
  Sarre la mirgesse "Sara the doctor"
  Sarre la Bocacharde (we can't find a translation of this byname; it
		       is probably uncomplementary)

These two are locative: 

  Bele-Assez de Gonesse 
  Rauve de Miauz


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 Juliana de Luna,
Julie Stampnitzky, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, Galiana de
Baiona, and Adelaide de Beaumont.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  22 Nov 2002


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References

[1] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of
First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983), s.n. Rebecca.

[2] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "Jewish Given Names
found in _Les Noms des Israe/lites en France_" (WWW: Self-published,
2000).
http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/levy/

[3] Carrasco, Juan, Fermi/n Miranda Garci/a, and Eloi/sa Rami/rez
Vaquero, _Los Judi/os del Reino de Navarra: Documentos 1351-1370_,
Navarra Judaica 3* (Pamplona: Gobierno de Navarra, Departmentado de
Educaci/on y Cultura, 1996).

[4] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de
personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens,
Musee de Picardie, 1967), p.214.

[5] Morlet, p.69.

[6] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris",
Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA:
Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997).
http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html

[7] Seror, Simon, _Les Noms des Juifs de France au Moyen Age_ (Paris:
Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1989),
s.n. Re/beca.