Warning: These are modern spellings of the names. The translator makes a big deal about having left the names in their "native form". I originally thought this meant that the names were unchanged from the source, but it turns out that she copied the names from a modern French translation of the Old French text. Damned if I know why she thought this was something to boast about.
The events of both chronicles stretch from France to the Middle East, with stops in Italy, Greece, Romania, Cyprus, Egypt, and elsewhere, and involve people from Germany and England as well as all these countries. However, most of the people mentioned by name are French, and nearly all are from the modern lands of northern France and Belgium. The people named are nearly all members of the nobility, and a disproportionate number are members of the high nobility. Very few women are named, and those who are named are almost all royalty. Thus the selection of names listed here is skewed heavily toward the naming practices of the nobility. However, that bias is not inappropriate for Society newcomers choosing their names.
| le Brun | "the brown" |
| Bliaud | "bliaut, a type of garment" |
| Fouinon | "weasel" [Dauzat] |
| Maquereau | "pimp" [Dauzat] |
| Mauvoisin | "bad neighbor" |
| Sarrasin | "saracen, dark-skinned" [Dauzat] |
| Tristram | "sad" [Joinville] |
It is worth noting that many royalty are mentioned only by given name and relationship (e.g., the king's daughter Marie) and that the names of kingdoms, counties, and other large provinces are used as locatives only by the rulers of those lands and by their immediate families.
Members of lesser families often shared the same locative surname, though not always. Sharing of locatives seems more common among the lower nobility and among younger members of a family, so I suggest that a man used his father's or brother's locative until he gained lands of his own, and then adopted a new locative.
Albert Dauzat, Dictionnaire Étymologique des Noms de Famille et des Prénoms de France (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987).
In the lists of given names, I have grouped diminutives and alternate spellings together, and presented the names in order of frequency of use in the text. The headword is the most common form attested. All names in this sample are given in their modern spellings, so the spellings should not be taken to indicate anything about period usage. The period spellings differ significantly in many cases, and there is considerable variation in spelling.
| Marie | 3 |
| Isabelle | 3 |
| Blanche | 3 |
| Marguerite | 2 |
| Agnes, Agnès | 2 |
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