[ANSTHRLD] Saxon female name

kobrien at texas.net kobrien at texas.net
Fri Feb 29 10:43:42 PST 2008


Quoting MissingLink <MissingLink at phulesgold.com>:

> Greetings to all,
> 
> I have a member who is wanting an early (7-8c) Saxon female name.  She
> likes Nerienda and wants a patronymic surname 
> (father's name will be Alric).  While I can find a lot about forming male
> patronymics, I  have found precious little about 
> female.  I have seen the attachment of -dottir as one way of doing it, but
> is that correct for that early time period?  If 
> not, what is the proper way to form the byname?


I've never heard of <Nerienda>.  Can you tell us what her documentation for 
the name is?  Depending on that, it may affect what can and can't be done 
with the name as a whole to insure it is registerable for the submitter.

Regarding <Alric>, here's what I can find quickly:

>From an Atlantia LoI in 2005: 

Reaney and Wilson (Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Aldrich) cite <{AE}
lric>, <Alric>, <Alrich> and <Elric> from 1066 and <Amicia Alric> from 1346. 

The {} and < > are my additions - since the formatting is lost when pasting 
into email.

The 1066 cites may be Latin or Old English.  I'm not sure.  Which they are 
will affect the form of the byname.  If they are Latin, then the form you 
would need is <filia [form of Alric in genitive case]>.  If they are Old 
English, then you need something like <[Alric in genitive case] dohtor>.

Regardless, I'd recommend the submitter allow minor changes when she submits 
since it's not unusual to need minor spelling changes to fix grammar in Old 
English and Latin.

Regarding what forms of <Alric> are appropriate for Old English versus Latin, 
I can check Tengvik when I get home.  Searle (which is online at googlebooks) 
might be helpful, it depend on what the entry has.

I'll take a closer look at this when I'm off the clock.  :)  If you can post 
the docs for her given name, that would help.

Mari





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