Category: Onomastics

Bahja had a name picked out and a lovely first draft of his device designed, but it needed a bit of adjustment to be registrable by the College of Arms.

Or, on a saltire between four rings purpure gemmed gules a pomegranate slipped and leaved Or seeded gules.

Although the original arrangement Bahja had sketched was problematic, we were able to retain all of the charges and the overall color scheme, while shifting them into a new layout which was free of conflicts.

Bahja is a Arabic masculine ism (given name) and al-Azraq is an Arabic masculine laqab (descriptive byname).

Both are found in “Arabic Names from al-Andalus” (Juliana de Luna, 2008).

Anne is an active fencer in the Province, who wanted to register armory that was personally meaningful, and had already identified a silver tree as the primary charge.

Per fess sable and vert, a tree and in chief a comet bendwise argent.

The illustration of the tree comes from the Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry, affectionately known as the PicDic, while the comet comes from the Viking Answer Lady’s SVG Images For Heralds collection.

Anne is a female given name in multiple parts of medieval Europe. It is found in the Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources at http://dmnes.org/name/Anne as attested to 1485 in Early Modern English, citing Wills and Inventories Illustrative of the History, Manners, Language, Statistics, &c. of the Northern Counties of England, from the Eleventh Century Downwards, volume I of Publications of the Surtees Society. London: J. B. Nicholas and Son, 1835.

Østgarðr is the name of the Crown Province of the East Kingdom, and the byname “of Østgarðr” follows the Branch Name Allowance of SENA PN.1.B.2.f.

Catelin wanted a name and device that reflected her family’s Scottish heritage, and had already picked a basic direction, so it didn’t take much additional effort to help her select something that was both unique and registrable.

Azure, a stag courant to dexter base between two roses argent.

Catelin had been interested in a “bucking” stag, but as that isn’t a recognized heraldic posture, we went looking for alternatives which would produce a similar visual effect.

While “courant to dexter base” is an unusual arrangement, it has been registered twice, most recently in January 2016.

The white rose was a badge of the House of York.

The illustrations for both charges are taken from Fox-Davies’ 1909 book A Complete Guide to Heraldry.

Catelin is a female given name found in the British Isles.

• On 4 Jan 1637, a woman named Catelin Maurenus was married in London, England. (Family Search batch number M05426-1.)
• Catelin dates to 1198 in Talan Gwynek’s “Feminine Given Names in A Dictionary of English Surnames.”

Straquhin is a late-period byname from the Scottish Lowlands.

• On 19 Feb 1609, a woman named Christan Straquhin was married in Angus, Scotland. (Family Search batch number M11310-2.)
• Straquhin dates to 1533 and 1549 in Sharon L. Krossa’s “Early 16th Century Scottish Lowland Names.”

SENA Appendix C indicates that after 1100, English and Scottish name elements may be combined.

Seònaid is new to the society, but has thrown herself into it full throttle, and only a few weeks after her first event had designed a device and come up with an authentic name, making my job as herald relatively easy — with just a little fiddling around the edges we were able to get her ideas into registrable shape and submitted.

Per saltire azure and argent, four mullets counterchanged.

The design Seònaid came up with is nice and simple, as were the best period designs.

The fact that there were no conflicts was a pleasant reminder of how much available design space remains open in the society’s armorial.

Seonaid is a Scottish Gaelic female given name attested to the fifteenth century. It is discussed in Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 2120 (Judith Phillips, 2001) which cites Scottish Verse from the Book of the Dean of Lismore (William J., ed., 1937).

Some useful discussion of the interpretation of the source material for Seonaid may be found in the Oct. 2009 LoAR acceptance for Seonaid Upton.

inghean is the Gaelic marker for “daughter of”. It is listed in SENA Appendix A as a standard element of female names when combined with the genetive form of their father’s given name.

inghean is also in shown as a standard name element in “Quick and Easy Gaelic Names” (Sharon L. Krossa, 2007)

mhic Aoidh is the genetive form of Mac Aoidh, a Gaelic male name formed from “Mac” (son of) and “Aoidh” (a common male given name). It is discussed in Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 3038 (Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 2005) which cites Woulfe s.n. mac Aoidh.

The combined form inghean mhic Aoidh is mentioned in Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 1793 as a plausible byname for the daughter of a clan chieftain.

Pronunciation for Gaelic names often requires a bit of puzzling, and this one is no different.

On first glance, some folks might read Seonaid as “Shin-aid,” thanks to the fame of Sinead O’Connor, but the modern pronunciation seems to be “Shoh-nah”, like the name Shona.

The period pronunciation seems to have been similar, but with a soft “t” added to the end. One source describes it as “Shoh-na[tch]”, with the [tch] representing something like a ‘d’ sound but with your tongue against your front teeth instead of the roof of your mouth.

Those of us who aren’t great at making unusual sounds, myself included, can go for something half-way between Shoh-nah and Shaw-nat and they’ll be in the right ballpark.

In the sixteenth century, inghean mhic Aoidh might have been pronounced “Neek Eye”.

In the fifteenth, “inghean mhic” hadn’t yet gotten squashed together, so it would’ve been something more like “Nee-an week Eye” or even “Een-yan veek Eye”

(The h in “mh” is acting as a lenition marker, which softens the sound of the letter that comes before it; I think of “mhic” as trying to say “meek” except that when you say the “m” you’re not allowed to put your lips all the way together the way you normally would for an “m” sound, which leaves you with something closer to a “w” or “v” sound.)

I recently consulted with our provincial seneschal to prepare a submission for a member of his household.

Sable, an eagle Or, orbed, langued, and armed argent, and on a chief Or three lozenges ployé gules.

Josef knew he wanted his arms to include an eagle as a nod to the arms of his knight, and wanted a chief with a set of three charges that would reference his hometown football team, the Steelers, and their stadium, formerly known as Three Rivers. The lozenge ployé, sometimes blazoned an “Arabic napkin,” comes directly from the team’s logo.

Josef is a German masculine given name, appearing in the FamilySearch Historical Records as follows:
• Josef Hoecker, Male, Christening, 30 Aug 1626, Roman Catholic, Lichtenwalde Habelschwerdt, Schlesien, Prussia C99829-1.
• Josef Jakob Gutsweiler, Birth, 21 January 1634, Male, Degernau, Baden, Germany C39052-1.

SENA Appendix A states that German names may take an locative byname marked by “von <place>.”

Ulm is a city in the Baden-Württemberg area of Germany. Its name is attested to 854, where it is called “Hulma” in a document signed by King Louis the German. In Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Cologne, 1572), the woodcut map of Ulm is labeled both in Latin, as “Ulma,” and in German, as “Ulm” (written “VLM”).

Badr is a rattan fighter in our province and had been working towards registering a name and device for some time. Along with with some of the other heralds on Facebook’s SCA Heraldry Chat group, I was glad to provide support as he worked through the process of selecting and combining name and armory elements.

Sable, the moon in her plenitude argent and on a chief Or a dragon passant gules.

Badr already had the outlines of his desired design worked out, and just needed a bit of support to find a combination of his favored elements that was registrable and clear of conflict.

The dragon image here comes from the Viking Answer Lady’s SVG Images for Heralds, while the moon image comes from Bruce Draconarius’ Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry.

Badr al-Abyārī is the name of an Arabic-speaking man living along the Silk Road in the 13-14th century.

Badr is an Arabic masculine given name, or “ism.” The name “Badr” appears in Juliana de Luna’s “Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain” (2001) under “Men’s given names that were found at least twice in these name lists.”

SENA Appendix A states that Arabic names may take an locative byname, using al- and the adjectival form of a place name. This type of name element is known as a “nisba,” and is often of the form al-<place>i.

Al-Abyārī is a locative byname in Arabic, meaning “from the wells”. (Abyār is used as the name of many places in the Arabic world where wells are found.) The name “al-Abyārī” appears in Juliana de Luna’s “Arabic Names from al-Andalus: Nickbynames by type” (2008).