[ANSTHRLD] name question

[Andrea Hicks]

PoetLover wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
> I have a client that would like the name Celeb (pronounced
> KAY-leb). He is looking for more of a Scottish or Irish persona.
> Time period doesn't matter. The only place I have seen this
> spelling is in a Tolkein book and then the above name is only a
> shortened form of Tolkein's character name. Yes I know that
> Tolkein is in NO way a reference for names in the SCA. Can you
> help me document the name Celeb?
> Bridgid

It's not what it seems so read on.

Academy report 1732

You wanted to know if the feminine name <Drucilla> was used in Ireland
or
Scotland between 1500 and 1700.  Here is the information we have found.

<Drucilla> is a modern variant of <Drusilla>, which is a feminine
derivative
of the Latin name <Drusus>.  Our first evidence of <Drusilla> in the
British
Isles is from 17th century England, when the practice of taking names
from
the Bible was in vogue.  [1]  Many of these names first appear in the
late
16th c. [*]  Such names were rare, and our records are far from
complete, so
it is likely that other names of this type also appeared that early even
though we have no record of them.

[1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian
Names_,
3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

[*] Examples of this type include <Abigail>, <Debora>, <Dorcas>,
<Eliazer>,
<Esther>, <Hanna>, <Jezabell>, <Martha>, <Rachell>, and <Ruth>,
feminine,
and <Caleb>, <Esdras>, <Ezekiel>, <Gamalyell>, <Israel>, <Joshua>,
<Josias>,
and <Nathaniel>, masculine. [2]

I have looked at the SCA and Academy Library articles (not all of them
of course, and the Middle Names Archive under late period English,
Gaelic and Welsh articles, and didn't find Caleb or Celeb.

The name Caleb has only been registered three times, the latest in 1997
(as a Welsh wannabe byname but Laurel dropped the <ap>)

When you have time maybe you could look through the on-line information.
Maybe others have more info.
--
Andrea / Maridonna