[ANSTHRLD] Is <clericus> a Registerable Byname

[Bob Wade]

Does anyone know if <clericus> is a registerable occupational byname?

A July 1988 Precedent seems to imply that it is.

"The given name had been ruled to be "famous and unique" by Master Baldwin, but the submitter has most excellently documented its not infrequent use by yeomen, clerics and other ordinary folk in period England and Scotland by references ranging from the Domesday Book to sixteenth century Scotland." [Weyland Underwood, LoAR July 2010, A-Atlantia]

The primary source, the Domesday Book, has several entries for <Given clericus> but also several entries like <Given episcopus>.  Does that mean the following Precedent non-registerable? 

"The name Dean was used as a title of rank in period. RfS IV.1 says:

"Names Claiming Rank. - Names containing titles, territorial claims, or allusions to rank are considered presumptuous.

"Titles like Earl and Duke generally may not be used as Society names, even if the title is the submitters legal name. Names documented to have been used in period may be used, even if they were derived from titles, provided there is no suggestion of territorial claim or explicit assertion of rank. For example, Regina the Laundress is acceptable but Regina of Germany is not.

"The Oxford English Dictionary, s.n. dean, gives this definition dating to the 14th C:

"A presbyter invested with jurisdiction or precedence (under the bishop or archdeacon) over a division of an archdeaconry; more fully called rural dean; formerly (in some cases) dean of Christianity; see CHRISTIANITY 4. (There were also urban deans (decani urbani): see Kennett Par. Antiq. II. 339.) The rural dean had, in England till the Reformation, and in France till the Revolution, large powers of visitation, administration, and jurisdiction, which are still retained in some Roman Catholic countries.

"Even if the name were not a title, it is a form of address. The "Dictionary of the Scots Language" (http://www.dsl.ac.uk) s.v. dene, gives this definition with examples in the 14th C, "A title prefixed to the names of ecclesiastics, not only to those holding the office of dean, but also to other dignitaries and even to ordinary monks," and shows examples of the word so used. Precedent holds that forms of address are, like titles, not registerable if they can be interpreted as a form of address:

"Friar falls into the same category as Brother. Both are titles or forms of address which carry no implicit assertion of rank. Brother as a form of address was recently discussed:

"In the case of this name, the element Brother in Brother Timothy is a form of address, not a name element. We do not register forms of address regardless of whether they would be presumptuous, such as Lord or Mistress, or whether they would not be presumptuous, such as Brother or Goodwife. The submitter is welcome to use Brother, as in Brother Timothy, as his preferred form of address, but this use of Brother is not registerable. [Timothy Brother, LoAR 11/2002, A-Artemisia]" [Dean Alexander Montgomery, LoAr Aug 2007, R-Ansteorra]

Tostig