[ANSTHRLD] name help please

[kobrien at texas.net]

> Name desired:
> 
> *Mahearra -* *She apparently constructed this name from sources she found

Bad news: creating a new name from period elements is pretty difficult.  Just 
a few things that have to be looked at are the initial language of the piece, 
meaning of the piece, whether the piece declines (changes forms) when added 
to another piece, whether the piece only appears at the beginning of a name, 
end of a name, middle of a name, or all of the above.


> in Hanks and Hodges Dictionary of Surnames.  She gave me reference pages:

More bad news.  Hanks and Hodges is an "avoid" book because many of the names 
in it are modern.



> 395, 353 and 393.  As I do not have this book all I could do was take notes
> over the phone.  Ma is apparently Old English form for a female relative.
> O'Harais the name she was working from.  She also mentioned the name
> Meadhar and that it is derived from Gaelic.  She sites Maher  and  heaghra
> (a personal name) as forms from which she constructed this name as well.*
> *So, I suppose the question is if this name construction is at all
> possible.  *

I wouldn't bet on it.  From what you've got here, it looks like the pieces 
come from two different languages.  And it looks like shes pulling pieces 
from a surname to try and create a given name.  Which is problematic.

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of Hanks & Hodges's Surnames, so I can't 
look and see what they say about these names.  so, I can't give you any more 
ideas on this one.


> **
> *Ad' Lauria* *This is basically Latin for Laureate and she state that "Ad"
> is a prefix.  That's all she has for this.  *

Latin is not my specialty.  However, as a commenter, I'd want to see evidence 
that this type of phrase was included in a period name.  I also gotta wonder 
if there might be a presumption issue.  To someone who knows Latin better 
than I do: could this byname be interpreted as a claim to be a Laurel?  I 
honestly don't know enough Latin to know that or not.


> **
> *d' Hexham** This is just a place name for some one from Hexham.  This
> city is in northern England very near the Scottish border.  She states she
> chose this form (French for of Hexham) because French was the language of
> the courts during her chosen time period.  (Tudor England)  Also, she says
> it would be possible as the border area was a very frequent intermingling of
> Scottish, Irish and English cultures.*

In French, <de> only becomes <d'> before words that begin with vowels.  So, 
the byname would be <de Hexham> not <d' Hexham>.

We should be able to look in any of a number of sources for <Hexham>.  I'm at 
work, so I can't grab them at the moment, but the ones that come to mind are: 
Ekwall, Mills, Reaney & Wilson, Bardsley, Speed, or even Hitching & 
Hitching.  When doing lookups like this, I usually stop as soon as I hit the 
submitter's desired spelling.

 
> >From what little I can find there are at least 1 if not 2 weirdness's
> (Irish
> or Gaelic and English).  However from what I can find the middle name
> listed is Latin and not registrable with any of the other names.

Mixing Latin with French or English is fine.  It's the lack of documentation 
of the middle name and whether it's falls under the presumptuous rulings or 
not that could be a problem.


> Other than that I really need some help here.  She has been trying to get
> her named registered for over 10 years.  I know a lot of the knowledge

If that's the case, be sure to note previous submissions when the forms are 
filled out for this one since that will allow Asterisk and/or Laurel to pull 
the correct file folder and keep all her stuff together.


> base has broadened since she started so I am hoping we can give her 
> something besides just a "NO that won't work" or "No I am just not going to
> do that for you" both statements she's heard but never been able to get 
> help with.  Thanks everyone for all the help and advice, I learn so much 
> here and I am looking forward to working this out!

Sorry I couldn't be of more help,

Mari