[ANSTHRLD] Anton de LaTour name

Coblaith Muimnech Coblaith at sbcglobal.net
Fri Oct 9 11:34:53 PDT 2009


Gregor Mac Beathain wrote:
> The client is requesting the name Anton de Latour. . .Submitter  
> would like the correct name form for 14th Cen. France. . .

How about "Antoine de la Tour"?  Both name phrases are found in the  
1292 census of Paris, according to Colm Dubh's index of given names  
in that document <http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/ 
paris.html#A>, so it's clearly appropriate to the early part of your  
client's period.

And Maridonna commented:
> Names Found in Commercial Documents from Bordeaux, 1470-1520 http:// 
> www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/bordeaux.html Lists several  
> variant of 'Anthony': Anthoine, Anthoinne, Anthoni, Anthonio,  
> Anthony, Anthoyne.

> <de la Tour>, 1421, from Ary's article 'French Surnames from Paris,  
> 1421, 1423 & 1438' http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/french/ 
> paris1423surnames.html


That makes it evident that it's appropriate to the latter part, as  
well.  (Aryanhwy's article is also available on the College of Arms  
site, by the way <http://heraldry.sca.org/names/french/ 
paris1423.html>.  Since the articles there are no-photocopy resources  
<http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/admin.html#APPENDIXH>, I'd  
use that version if I were going to use either.  Waste not, want not.)

Maridonna also wrote:
> Morlet, Marie-Therese. Étude d’Anthroponymie Picarde:_  Les noms de  
> personne en Haute Picardie aux xiii, xiv, xv siècles_. Les Presses  
> du Palais Royal, Paris, 1967. P 61 lists <de Latour> and is dated  
> to between 1300 and 1399.


So "Antoine de Latour" is apparently also appropriate to at least  
some part of the span.

Gregor explained:
> The spelling that the submitter wants is "de LaTour".

There are plenty of bynames from period France where articles and the  
nouns they modified were compounded.  But the compounds were still  
written according to the orthographical conventions of the time.   
I've never seen one that had the "La-" followed by an uppercase  
letter.  (And I wouldn't expect to.  CamelCase is sort of a late-20th- 
century American thing.)  The client's lucky!  He has two documented  
forms from which to choose.  Urge him to pick one.


Incidentally, I think it's pretty clear that "Anton" wasn't in use as  
a given name in 14th-century France.  But if the client would rather  
use that form than have a historically accurate name, he probably  
can.  More than two dozen men named "Anton" are listed in Juliana de  
Luna's "Spanish Names from the Late 15th Century" <http:// 
heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/isabella/index.html>.  Names  
combining Spanish and French have been ruled one step from period  
practice <http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/loar/ 
2005/10/05-10lar.html#69>, but I don't see a second step in either  
"Anton de Latour" or "Anton de la Tour".  Using the evidence I've  
mentioned, both bynames can be dated to within a couple of centuries  
or less of the given name.


Coblaith Muimnech
<mailto:Coblaith at sbcglobal.net>
<http://coblaith.net>







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