Unto Elisabeth de Rossignol, Laurel; Margaret MacDuibhshithe, Pelican; Jeanne Marie Lacroix, Wreath; and the commenting Members of the College of Arms,

Greetings from Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy, Parhelium Herald!

The Atenveldt College of Heralds requests the consideration and registration of the following names and armory with the College of Arms.

Please note: Unless specifically stated, the submitter will accept any spelling and grammar corrections; all assistance is appreciated.

1. Ameera al-Sarrakha: NEW NAME

The name is Arabic. Amira is Arabic for “princess” and appears in Da’ud’s Arabic Naming Practices as a feminine title of nobility. Amira bint Mikhail of Safita was registered June 2005, which suggests that this name could fall under the guideline that a name may be registered that is also a title if there is no other claim to rank in the name, the classic example being Regina the Laundress. Since this name does not have any claims to rank or territory, it should be registerable. In addition, both Dau’d ibn Auda’s article “Arabic Naming Practices and Period Names List”and Juliana de Luna’s “Jewish Women's Names in an Arab Context: Names from the Geniza of Cairo” include numerous instances of female names that are either titles, or contain a title as part of a compound name, which indicates that in an Islamic and/or Arabic context the use of a title in a name does not imply actual rank. Juliana's article is taken from the Geniza of Cairo and so might be expected to represent a fair cross section of the Fustati Jewish community, which was largely mercantile. Schimmel notes that the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law ’Ali, known as “commander of the faithful” (amīr al-mu‘minīn) and also according to legend as “the leader of bees” (amīr an-nahl) gives rise to names based in the Islamic religion as Amīr ’Ali; and simply Amīr (Schimmel 34). (We’re inclined to argue that, in the Muslim world the distinction between "title" and "name" is considerably murkier than heralds in the SCA would like it to be.)

sarrakh means “peacock,” and is found in Hans Wehr’s A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic as sa’lab{^i}, p. 511. It is used as a descriptive laqab, and follows Da’ud ibn Auda’s guidelines for formation of a laqab by the addition of the particle al-. It is feminized by the addition of the terminal -a (which, I suppose, makes this more accurately a peahen...), and we’ve chosen to avoid use of diacriticals. Wehr’s Dictionary demonstrates the feminization of masculine nouns in examples of creatures like ‘usfūr to ‘usfūra (“sparrow, small bird”, 617); namir to namira (“tiger, leopard”, 1000); humans like fannān to fannāna (“artist”, 728); māshit to māshita (“barber, hairdresser”, 910); samīr to samīra (“conversation partner”, 429); raqqās to raqqāsa/rāqisa (“professional dancer”, 354); fallāh to fallāha (“farmer, peasant”, 726); mutrib to mutriba (“musician, singer”, 555); and physical characteristics like wabir to wabrā (“hairy, shaggy”, 1045); alaff to laffā’ (“stout, fat”, 871); abyad to baidā (“white, bright”,86; a number of adjectives which begin with a- in the masculine drop that intial a- as well during the feminization process); shahwān to shahwā (“drunken”, 491); kayyis to kayyisa (“sly, smart, shrewd”, 849).

In “Islamic Names,” Schimmel does mention that laqabs based on animals were fairly common, and, helpfully, quotes a satiric poem written in the 12th century CE in Abivard (located in Persia) which mentions that all of the civil servants had names based on the names of animals (Schimmel 52). She also quotes al-Nawawi’s mention of a man who had the laqab meaning “peacock’s foot”. Schimmel does not give a date on this citation, al-Nawawi lived in the 13th century CE. A brief biography is found as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawawi. This does establish that animal-based laqabs were used and that laqabs involving peacocks existed (and even animal parts!). A close reading of Schimmel makes it clear that, in general, respectable women did not have laqabs. [The exception to this, of course, being women like Fatima al-Zahra whose reputation for holiness and whose importance in the history of Islam was such that they were well known for positive reasons. In this case, the laqab could serve as a way of mentioning the lady without calling her by name.] Schimmel does mention that ladies of negotiable affection did also sometimes have laqabs.

The client is most interested in the language/culture of the name and wishes it to be feminine. She is most interested that the given name/’ism Ameera is maintained.

2. Ameera al-Sarrakha: NEW DEVICE

Per bend sinister azure and vert, a peacock feather bendwise sinister and a seahorse argent.

3. Angharad Ewan: NEW NAME

Angharad is a Welsh feminine given name; it is found in “A Simple Guide to Constructing 13th Century Welsh Names,” Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn ( http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/welsh13.html ), where it appears in the medieval source as Angharat. The spelling desired by the client is found in “Snapshot of a Cantref: The Names and Naming Practices in a Mawddwy Court Roll of 1415-16,” Heather Rose Jones

( http://www.heatherrosejones.com/names/welsh/mawddwy1415.html ).

Ewain is a masculine Scots given name, first seen in 1164, and an example of it used as a patronymic is demonstrated with Douenaldus Ewain a. 1165 (Black, p. 249, s.n. Ewan); the spelling Ewan itself is not dated. It is most often seen in a patronymic form preceded by Mac-. "Patrick McEwyn was provost ofWygtoun, 1331" is found in Black, p. 491, s.n. MACEWAN.

The client is most interested in the language/culture of the name, and it means “Angharad daughter of Ewan” and that it be feminine.

4. Angharad Ewan: NEW DEVICE

Per bend sinister vert and Or, a doe statant counterchanged.

5. Aylwin Wyllowe: NEW BADGE

(Fieldless) Three triquetras one and two conjoined vert.

The name was registered May 2003.

The badge uses elements from the client’s registered device, Per chevron sable and vert, a bordure argent charged with three triquetras vert.

6. Azizah al-Labu’a bint Ibrahim ibn Rashid al-Rahhala: NEW NAME

The name is Arabic.

Azizah is a feminine given name and Ibrahim and Rashid, masculine given names, are all found in “Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices,” Da'ud ibn Auda ( http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/arabic-naming2.htm ). The masculine names make up a two-generation nasab (pedigree). Labu’a, “lioness,” serves as a laqab (found in Wehr’s A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, p. 854), referring to the client’s strong personality. It is formed in the manner of laqab outlined in Da’ud’s article and is placed in the name following the pattern for Chaninai al-Zarqa' bint Ibrahim ibn Rashid (registered August 2002).

al-Rahhala, “the great-traveler,” is found in Wehr, p. 331, and its placement demonstrates that Rashid, the individual’s grandfather, was a great traveler.

7. Azizah al-Labu’a bint Ibrahim ibn Rashid al-Rahhala: NEW DEVICE

Per fess argent and sable, on a fess gules a lion couchant and in base a decrescent argent.

She has written permission from Chaninai al-Zarqa' bint Ibrahim ibn Rashid to conflict with Chaninai’s registered armory, Per fess argent and sable, on a fess gules a scimitar blade to chief and in base a snake involved argent.

8. Azizah al-Labu’a bint Ibrahim ibn Rashid al-Rahhala: NEW BADGE

(Fieldless) A lion couchant argent charged upon the shoulder with a decrescent gules.

9. Ceara MacTagan: NEW DEVICE

Purpure, three frangipani blossoms in pale between flaunches argent.

The name was registered January 2006.

Frangipani, or plumeria, is the classic “lei” flower and is found in Pacific Island, Mexico, South American and the Caribbean ( http://www.sd1new.net/GardenPages/plumeria.htm ). Apparently, the plant is indigenous to southern Mexico, Central American, northern South America and the Caribbean, but through human actions, it has spread to all tropical areas of the world, especially Hawai'i ( http://mgonline.com/plumeria.html ), where it grows so abundantly that many people think that it is native. It was known to the Aztecs, and it was used medicinally in salves and ointments. The common name frangipani might come from a member of a 16th-C. Italian noble family, who invented a plumeria-scented perfume ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frangipani ), although the Italian perfume, used to scent gloves, may have predated the discovery of the flower; the blossom might’ve been named after the perfumier, the Marquis Frangipani, when the frangipani flowers were first discovered, and the natural perfume reminded people of the Marquis’ scented gloves ( http://www.frangipanifarm.com.au/history.htm ).

10. Erik of Rockwell: NEW DEVICE

Per pale azure and sable, a sword inverted proper, bat-winged and within a bordure Or.

The name was registered April 1999.

11. Erik of Rockwell: NEW BADGE

(Fieldless) A sword inverted proper, bat-winged Or.

The name was registered April 1999.

12. Flora Tay: REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION from Florie Tay, Laurel, July 2006

The original submission, Flòraidh Tay, was registered as Florie Tay, as documentation was submitted and none found to suggest that Flòraidh was a period Gaelic name. (Her old name, Katherine Lamond, is retained as an alternate name, and this is still the case.) During the course of the submission, I was in contact with the client and told here that it was very unlikely that Flòraidh would be registered and that it was likely the form Florie would be. She indicated to me that she didn’t like Florie and would prefer Flora, if an alternate form would have to be registered. I agreed to follow through on this and then promptly forgot to do so. It is my fault, and not the client’s, that the alternate form she would be satisfied with was not brought up before the name change was ruled upon.

Flora is a feminine given name that Withycombe states was adopted as a given name in France at the Renaissance (from the name of the Roman goddess of flowers), and that it was subsequently imported to Scotland (3rd edition, p. 118, s.n. Flora).

The Tay is a river in Scotland, the longest in the United Kingdom ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Tay ); it has been registered previously to her husband Malcolm Tay (February 2000).

13. Mederic de Chatellerault: NEW NAME CHANGE from Mederic de Castro Araldi

The current name was registered November 2005.

The client wishes to register a later period name than that which was registered (11^th C. France...ah, the bane of marking the “Authenticity” box!). Châtellerault, located in the province of Touraine, was an important stronghold on the northern March of Poitou, established by the Count of Poitiers to secure his borders in the early 10th C. The daughter of Aymeric I, Aenor de Chatellerault (ca 1103 - ca 1130), William X of Aquitaine, and was mother of Eleanor of Aquitaine ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2tellerault#Twinned_cities ). It was noted in the November 2005 LoAR, in which the registration of his name appears, that the locative Châtellerault is a modern form; the â character does not come into common use until the 18th C. He would prefer the spelling closer to Chatellerault than the earlier Castro Araldi. (I’m guessing that there has to be a happy medium between Castro Araldi and Châtellerault, a period when the name of the town was shifting from the original Latin to a more regional French form.)

The client desires a masculine name and is interested in having the name authentic for language/culture of late 13^th C. France. If Chatellerault is not registerable, he would prefer Mederic of Aquitaine to be considered.

14. Osric of Blakwode: NEW NAME

Osric was a king of Northumbria, c. 729 (http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/kingdoms/693.html ). It is also found in “Anglo-Saxon Names,” Ælfwyn æt Gyrwum ( http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/aelfwyn/bede.html ), dated to 731 A.D. (most likely a reference to that Northumbrian king).

 Blakwode is dated to 1384 as an English byname (Reaney and Wilson, 3^rd edition, p. 47, s.n. Blackwood); de Blacwode is dated a little earlier, 1327. Although Osric is very early, it does appear as the name of a courtier in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which as least suggests that it persisted into very late period.

The client is most interested in the sound of the name and wishes it to be masculine. He will not accept major changes to the name.

15. Osric of Blakwode: NEW DEVICE

Or, on a pall inverted sable between two dragons combatant and a third dormant gules, a pall inverted Or.

16. Robert Lyons: NEW NAME

The name is English. Robert is a common masculine given name throughout period, earliest dated to 1071 (Withycombe, 3^rd edition, pp. 254-5).

de Lyons is dated to 1296 in Reaney and Wilson, 3^rd edition, p. 289, s.n. Lyon, Lyons; it is also the client’s legal surname.

The client is most interested in the sound of the name and wishes a masculine name.

17. Robert Lyons: NEW DEVICE

Quarterly per fess rayonny azure and argent.

18. Sechen Doghshin-Unegen: NEW NAME

The name is Mongolian, with all elements found in “Mongolian Naming Practices,” Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy, 1995 KWHS Proceedings.

Sechen is a feminine given name (the source of it being "Mongol Oral Narratives: Gods, Tricksters, Heroes and Horses." Publications of the Mongolia Society, Occasional Papers No. 16. The Mongolian Society, Inc., Indiana University, Bloomington IN, 1995).

The byname is made up of elements meaning “wild,” doghshin, and “fox,” unegen; Senchen Jagchid’s Mongolia's Culture and Society lists general categories that reflect Mongolian naming practices, one of them being animal names. A precedent for using a hyphenated name: “[Chinua Al-Naran] Mongols did not as a rule use three-part names. Fortunately, Pennon has pointed out that there is an uncommon but attested pattern of hyphenated names, to which this submission can easily be made to conform. We have taken his suggestion. (Jaelle of Armida, LoAR May 1999, p. 8).” Alternately, the elements of the byname could be simply combined, as was the case in the registration of Temurmaghad Ghubiyan in July 2006, with Temurmaghad, “"iron determination/resolve.”

The client is most interested in the language/culture of the name, wishes it to be feminine and authentic for language/culture. She will not accept major changes.

19. Sechen Doghshin-Unegen: NEW DEVICE

Per fess sable and azure, a mermaid per fess Or and argent, in chief two pitchers fesswise, their bases to center, each distilling a gout Or, a bordure erminois.

20. Shanda MacNeil: NAME CHANGE from Holding Name Shalon of Atenveldt

The client was assigned the holding name Shalon of Atenveldt, from the submitted Shalon MacNeil, for the combination of a non-Biblical Hebrew name with a Scots patronymic.

 Shanda is the lady’s legal given name (photocopy of her Arizona driver’s license is forwarded to Laurel).

MacNeil is a Scottish surname, with the spelling MacNeill dated within our grey area of 1633 (Black, Surnames of Scotland, 12th reprinting, 1999, p. 550). Albion Herald had previously noted that MacNeil as the Scots (i.e., anglicized) form of the original Gaelic form mac Neill.

The client will not accept minor changes to the name.

21. Sythe Blackwolf:: NEW HOUSEHOLD BADGE

Per saltire argent and gules, in pale a dragon couchant contourny sable and a beacon sable flammant proper, a bordure counterermine.

The client’s name appears in the 31 May 2006 Letter of Intent.

22. Thorarna i Hiartt: NAME CHANGE from Holding Name Jennifer of Atenveldt, July 2006

The original name submission, Thorarna I Hiarrt, was returned by the College of Arms because “no documentation was submitted and none found for the byname I Hiartt. The form and summarization merely noted that it was "a farm in Northern Norway." However, none of the commenters was able to find documentation for this name, even in Oluf Rygh's article "Norwegian Farm Names." As no documentation was submitted for this name and none found, we are forced to return it. We noted that the preposition in locative bynames in Old Norse and Norwegian names is not typically capitalized. In resubmitting, we advise the submitter to put the preposition in lower case.”

Thorarna is a feminine given name found in Geirr Bassi Haraldsson's The Old Norse Name, p. 16 (as Þórarna).

The byname refers to a farm in northern Norway. The name is found in the O. Rygh Oslo Documentation Project (Norwegian Farm Names), http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/rygh_visetekst.prl?s=n&Vise=Vise&KRYSS259612@57594=on (copy of documentation to Laurel); in modern times, the farm is known as Hjart, but the Hiartt spelling is documented in 1567 and 1610. [ This site is an ongoing effort to collate aspects of Norwegian history, language and culture, from the four universities in Norway and their museums and collections, in addition to other collections throughout the country.]

If registered, the name should be associated with the registered device Quarterly argent and vert, a Bowen knot crosswise counterchanged

23. Zedena Chovat se mazaný: NEW NAME

The name is Bohemian.

Zedena is the name of the wife of Albert III, Duke of Saxony; they married in 1464; Zedena (Western European forms are seen as Sidonia/Sidonie) was the daughter of George Podebrad, king of Bohemia

( http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Albert_III_of_Saxony ).

The elements of the byname are elements taken directly from a modern online English-Czech dictionary (since the western Czech Republic is the area of the historic Bohemia), with chovat se a verb for “to behave, conduct oneself” and mazaný, “sly” ( http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Czech-Dictionary/ ). It is hoped that the byname can mean something to the effect of “foxy, sly like a fox.” The same site shows liščí as the adjectival form of “fox” and liška as the noun for “fox,” so perhaps one of these might be more accurate. Any assistance with the name would be greatly appreciated.

The client is most interested in the sound of the given name and the meaning of the byname.

24. Zedena Chovat se mazaný: NEW DEVICE

Per pale vert and argent, two demifoxes issuant from dexter and sinister statant respectant counterchanged.

I was greatly assisted in the preparation of this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Fearghus mac Mhoail Domhnaich mhic Thoirdhealbhaich, Katherine Throckmorton, Helena de Argentoune and Knute Hvitabjörn.  

This letter contains 7 new names, 1 new name change, 9 new devices, 4 new badges, 1 name reconsideration and 2 changes of holding name. This is a total of 24 items, 21 of them new. A $84.00 check to cover fees will be sent separately.

Thank you again for your indulgence and patience, your expertise and your willingness to share it.

I remain,

Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy

c/o Linda Miku

2527 East 3rd Street; Tucson AZ 85716

atensubmissions.nexiliscom.com

brickbat@nexiliscom.com

Commonly-Cited References

Black, George F. The Surnames of Scotland.

Medieval Names Archive. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/

Ó Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire. Irish Names.

Reaney, P.H. and R. M. Wilson. A Dictionary of English Surnames, 2^nd Edition, 1976, reprinted 1979.

Withycombe, E.G., The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 3rd Edition. London, Oxford University Press, 1977.