[ANSTHRLD] Latin Name Help Request - philologus

[Coblaith Muimnech]

Tostig wrote:
> I'd like to do a name change from the registered Tostig Logiosophia  
> to its nearest Latin equivalent.  The given name shouldn't be a  
> problem ('Tosti' and 'Tostius' are in the Domesday Book).

You didn't say to what period you'd like your name to date.  I found  
some later spellings, though no later instances of the name's use.

One "Tostius comes Northimbrensis" is a significant figure in 11th- 
century events described in the seventh book of Ranulf Higden's 14th- 
century _Polychronicon_ <http://books.google.com/books? 
id=xMlCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA214>.  John Trevisa, who translated the  
_Polychronicon_ into Middle English around 1387, rendered the name  
"Tostius eorle of Norþhumberlond", and the unknown author of MS  
Harland 2261 (a 15th-century translation of the same text) also used  
that spelling for the given name <http://books.google.com/books? 
id=xMlCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217>.

I think Pierre de Langtoft was describing the same individual when he  
wrote of "Tostus, counte de Cumberland" in his chronicle <http:// 
www.archive.org/stream/chroniclepierre01wriggoog#page/n433/mode/1up/ 
 >, which was penned in "the French of Yorkshire" in the 13th century  
<http://www.archive.org/stream/chroniclepierre01wriggoog#page/n36/ 
mode/1up>.  The name is given as "Tostus of Cumbirland" in Robert  
Mannyng of Brunne's "illustrated and improved" translation, completed  
around 1338 (as transcribed by Thomas Hearne in 1725) <http:// 
www.archive.org/stream/peterlangtoftsc00theagoog#page/n296/mode/1up>.

Iohn Hardyng, in his 15th-century chronicle, names the same man "The  
earle Tosty then of Northumberlande", according to Henry Ellis' 1812  
transcription <http://www.archive.org/stream/ 
chronicleiohnha00grafgoog#page/n255/mode/1up>.  'Course, that doesn't  
look to be Latin. . .but it might give you an idea of how it was  
pronounced in the vernacular.

By the way, the online Middle English Dictionary shows "tostus" as a  
(Latinized, I think) word meaning "a slice or piece of browned bread"  
<http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED46460>,  
and "tosty" as one form of a word describing either "a toasted piece  
of bread" or "a culinary dish made with toasted bread" <http:// 
quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED46467>, just so  
you know.


> "Philolgus" is documentable throughout Period as a given name  
> (Romans 16:15).  Is that sufficient to support either "Tostius  
> philologus"  given the occupational naming pattern "X clericus" in  
> the Domesday Book or the desciptive naming pattern "Beda  
> venerablis"(The venerable Bede)?

First, the fact that a name appears in some version of the Book of  
Romans does not mean it's "documentable throughout period as a given  
name".  There were multiple period forms of the Bible, lots of places  
and times where Biblical names were seldom or never used, and plenty  
of Biblical names that were rarely or never seen even in areas where  
other Biblical names were common.  And even those names that had a  
wide distribution didn't stay the same across the continent and  
throughout the centuries.  Consider "Iago" and "Jacotin", or  
"Elisavefa" and "Ersebet".  If you want to use the name, you need to  
find evidence of the use of a specific variant in an appropriate  
place and time.

Second, even if you can show "Philolgus" in use as a given name in a  
context compatible with one to which you can document "Tostius", that  
doesn't do anything to support it as a descriptive or occupational  
byname.  (Maybe an unmarked patronymic, if it happens to be a context  
in which those were used.)

"Clericus" is a pretty straightforward job title; I don't see any  
parallel between that and "philolgus".  As I recall, it's pretty nigh  
unique in its use in the Domesday book, too (though I haven't double- 
checked that), so there may not really a pattern of use there to  
implement.

I don't know that Bede was called "the Venerable" during his  
lifetime.  (Again, I haven't checked.)  But even if he was, modeling  
your byname on a title of respect only ever given to one very special  
historical figure would be more than a bit shaky.

Detlef von Marburg mentioned:
> "Grammaticus" is a name given to someone who is known for his  
> ability to write Latin (which would definitely count me out; I can  
> barely READ Latin).

It appears in the Middle English Dictionary as the Latin form of  
"gramarien", which is given that definition, but also "a philologist,  
an etymologist" and "in a more general sense: any learned man"  
<http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED19214>.


Coblaith Muimnech