[ANSTHRLD] Place name help - High Medieval Scotland

[Coblaith Muimnech]

Dreda wrote:
> I am looking for documentation on the name of Dumbarton, Scotland,  
> during the High Middle Ages (specifically 900-1054, during the  
> existence of the Kingdom of Stratheclyde).. . .

> . . .I'm trying to register my name, using this location as the  
> byname.

I don't have anything from your period.  But if your primary concern  
is registration, you might be interested to know that a dozen or more  
pre-17th-century variants of "Dumbarton" appear in the online  
Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/>.  The  
earliest I found were these three from the 14th century:

    Dunbretane (1360, 1400)
    Dunbretayn (1363)
    Dumbretan (1329)

A typonymic incorporating any of these would match "Etheldreda" well;  
it's got several 14th-century dates in Talan Gwynek's "Feminine Given  
Names in A Dictionary of English Surnames" <http://heraldry.sca.org/ 
heraldry/laurel/reaneyAG.html>.  The first appears in the context of  
a name ("Roberto de Dunbretane") in the original Latin document, so  
such a use obviously plausible.

But don't forget, if you're thinking of combining one of these with  
something like "Æðelðryd", that you have to worry about both temporal  
and linguistic compatibility.  The combination of name phrases dated  
more than 300 years apart is one step from period practice <http:// 
heraldry.sca.org/loar/1993/03/cvr.html>.  The combination of a name  
phrase in Old English and one in Middle English is another <http:// 
heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/loar/2001/10/01-10lar.html#168>.  Two steps  
is too far for registration.


Coblaith Muimnech
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