SR - Re: Naming the Region

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

On Mon, 12 Oct 1998, Eirik wrote:

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> For my uninformed knowledge, is there other regional names in other
> Kingdoms?? I would hate for us to make a decision and then find out
> that we can't use it.

We can easily register (thus protecting from conflict) a geographic
name -- or any number of them, really, but I wouldn't advice a large
number for politeness's sake.  However, branch arms cannot be
registered without a real SCA branch for them to be arms for.  Branch
arms have to have a laurel wreath, and that's restricted to branches,
so we can't call it a "household badge" or any other evasion.


The rest of this are rules hacque details, dealing with the gory
details of how to get it past the College of Arms.  I include it for
the one other person (*maybe*.  AElfwyn?)  who might be interested,
and to get it into the archives in case it's needed later.


The only clients who can register items are individuals and formal SCA
branches.  The latter are pretty much enumerated as to type in Corpora
-- shires, baronies, principalities, kingdoms, et cetera -- and
regions aren't on the list.  In particular, there is a specific Laurel
precedent (LoAR 7/91, in Da'ud ibn Auda 1.2 precedents) against
registering arms to regions, and I suspect that a name cannot be
registered to a region either.

However, SCA branches can register "household names", a generic
identifier for "the name of a group other than a Society branch or
order, such as a household, guild, group fighting unit, etc.".  (SCA
CoA Admin Handbook II.B.3).  "Household names must follow the patterns
of period names of organized groups of people." (SCA CoA RfS
III.2.b.iv), and one example is "ruling dynasties ('House of Anjou')",
which is clearly a geographical name.

So "House of Campoleon", for example, could be registered --
presumably to the kingdom or some barony who'd give it up when asked.

A kingdom or barony can have as many households, awards, et cetera
registered as they like -- only individuals and SCA branches without
ruling nobles are restricted to four name items.  Thus we could
protect as many candidates as we like.  I suggest not using that
freedom, or using it only sparingly.  I think the College of Arms
would get right royally cheesed at us if we asked them to research 42
names, and we later released 41 of them.

Alternatively, similarly, and with less question, "Campoleon Herald"
could be registered to the kingdom: "Heraldic titles must follow the
patterns of period heraldic titles. These are generally drawn from
surnames (Chandos Herald, Percy Herald), place-names (Windsor Herald,
Calais Pursuivant, Sicily Herald), ..."  Note "place-names".

But what if a "Shire of Campoleon" later tried to register?  The
"designator" (House, Shire, Barony, Kingdom, Order, Award, Herald,
...) is "transparent" and does not count for conflict. (RfS V.2.a).
Therefore, that Shire should bounce for exact conflict.  (At least
unless the rules change ...)  If they don't by some error, we still
have the name grandfathered to us.

Later, we do a name and ownership change: change of designator to
Principality and change of ownership to itself.  If the real part of
the name (in these examples, Campoleon) is OK as a geographic name,
then it's OK for style, and conflict can't be a problem.

In fact, this has been done twice this decade: Summits Pursuivant
became Crown Principality of the Summits in 11/92, and Northshield
Herald became Principality of Northshield 10/94.

Crown Principalities have been registered in the past.  I don't know
their current status, whether they're doable and registerable or no.
The last thing I see for it is 12/95, when Ealdormere tried to take
off their "Crown".  What I recall hearing is that it's a
"principality" where the Crown are the Coronet ex officio, and there
need not be any real officers, and it's not really a branch.  I see no
provision allowing it in Corpora.

Another idea was mooted by Laurel in the 7/98 LoAR Cover Letter, to
let incipient principalities register items.  It should be voted on at
the October BoD meeting, here in Ansteorra.  However, the proposal has
     If the group is not approved by the BoD as an official
     principality within two years of registration, unless a request
     is made from the Society Seneschal asking for a one year
     extension, the name and device will be released.
This seems unuseful for our needs, since we have no timeframe in mind.

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; 
if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com is my work address.
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