Æthelmearc External Letter of Intent #Æ64
February, 2003

Unto François Laurel, Mari Pelican, Zenobia Wreath, and the commenting members of the College of Arms do Ailis Garnet and Roana Cornelian send greetings! It is the wish of the Æthelmearc College of Heralds that the following submissions be considered for registration. Unless otherwise noted, the submitters will accept all changes.

Per pale sable and argent, an oriental dragon rampant and a bordure dovetailed counter-changed.

This name is intended to be masculine. The submitter requests a name authentic for lowland Scots and allows no changes.

Adrian is a header form in Withycombe, with Adrianus dated to 1189-1205 and Adrian Fortescue executed in London in 1539.

MacLachlan is a header form in Black, with the form Maclouchlan dated to 1314.

The submitter allows minor changes only.

The order name follows the suggested pattern of order names outlined in the RfS III.2.b.ii. The pattern of "Order of <adjective><noun>" is well established by the examples given in this section, such as the "Order of the Golden Fleece" and the "Order of the Golden Rose." This construction is also identical to the construction of "The Order of the Golden Alce," registered to the Kingdom of Æthelmearc in 04/90 (via the East).

Silver is dated to 1450 as an heraldic tincture, 1526 as an adjective meaning made of silver, and to 1605 as an adjective meaning having the whiteness or lustre of silver, with other spellings as early as 1032 AD, in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Alce is another name for an elk and is dated to 1541 in the OED.

This name is intended to be masculine and the submitter allows minor changes only.

Benedict is found in Withycombe dated to 1273.

Fergus is a header form in Reaney & Wilson, dated to 1251. Submitted as Feargus, the spelling with the 'a' is a Gaelic form. In a reasonably early name with three name elements, we felt that it would be best if all three name elements were linguistically consistent, so we changed the spelling to the a-less English form.

atte Mede is a locative meaning "dweller by or in the mead." Reaney & Wilson (s.n. Mead) identifies John Atemede in 1248. The same source gives many instances of "atte" being separate, such as John atte Mulle, 1276 (s.n. Mill) and Robert atte Revere, 1327 (s.n. Revere).

Per saltire purpure and vert, in pale two moose's heads couped contourny argent.

This name is intended to be masculine and the submitter cares most about sound.

Ethan is a biblical name, and can be found in I Kings 4:31 as well as the 89th Psalm. Since Biblical names were used in England during the Reformation, this should be allowable as a late period name.

Stewart is a header in Black, with this spelling dated to 1371. Black emphasizes that the name Stewart was hardly exclusive to the Royal Family. Also, Bardsley (s.n. Steward) lists a John Steward in Northhampton in 1581.

Azure, three water-bougets Or and a chief Or fretty azure.

This name is intended to be feminine and the submitter cares most that the name be Italian.

Giana appears once in Arval's "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427."

di is a literal patronymic meaning "of."

Aurelio is a personal name dated to the 16th century by Rhian Lyth. Also, as found at http://www.grainger.de/music/composers/virgil.html, the composer Aurelio Virgiliano lived from 1540 to 1600.

Azure, a duck naiant between three roundels Or.

This name is intended to be feminine and the submitter cares most about sound.

Gwineth is found in Morgan and Morgan (s.n. Gwynedd) in the section where it discusses the origin of Gwyneth as a feminine name, noting a Gwineth ver' Robert in 1577.

McClelan is dated to 1509 in Black, s.n. Macclellan.

The combination of Welsh and Scots is a single weirdness.

This name is intended to be feminine and the submitter cares most that the name means "Isolda, daughter of George."

Isolda is a header form in Withycombe dated to 1273.

filia is Latin for 'daughter.'

Reaney & Wilson (s.n. George, Georgeson) cites Hugo filius Georgii in 1222.

Purpure, a sword maintained by a hand and in chief three estoiles of eight points argent.

This name is intended to be masculine. The submitter cares most about an unspecified language/culture and allows minor changes only.

Leo is found in Withycombe (s.n. Leo), used in 1273.

Submitted as Bertrand, reading through Withycombe's discussion of the name (s.n. Bartram) we feel that the spelling ending in –d is a French form of the name, and that using all English name forms would be more appropriate to this double-surname construction. To this end, Reaney & Wilson (s.n. Bartram) cite Henry Bertran to c.1155 and we have changed the name to match this documentation.

Benton is a header form in Reaney & Wilson with de Benton dated to 1234, de Beneton to 1275, and Benton to 1450.

This name is intended to be masculine and the submitter cares most that the name means "the Tinker."

Michael is a header form in Withycombe, dated to 1196-1215, 1218, 1303, and 1346.

Reaney & Wilson (s.n. Tinker) cite one Robert le Tinker in 1243.

This name is intended to be feminine. The submitter cares most about sound and wants the name to be authentic for 16th century Elizabethan.

Admittedly, double given names are vanishingly rare in period, but not unheard of. While the submitter requests authenticity and allows all changes, we are not convinced as to where the line should be drawn between "rare" and "inauthentic," and for the time being have allowed the double given name to stand.

Phebee is dated to 1583 as a feminine given name according to Mari's "Names in Chesham, 1538-1600/1."

Sybbel is dated to 1561 (s.n. Sible) in Mari's "Index to Feminine Given Names in the Registers of the Church of St. Mary's, Dymoch, 1538-1600."

Headley is a surname found in "Surnames in Durham and Northumberland, 1521-1615" by Julie Stampnitzky.

Azure, two chicken's legs conjoined à la cuise inverted issuant from base Or feathered argent.

This name is intended to be feminine and the submitter allows no changes.

Rhiannon was ruled SCA compatible in Jaelle's January 1997 LoAR.

y Bwa is a constructed nickname intended to mean "of the bow." The submission includes email correspondence from Tangwystyl who gives several examples of nicknames based on weapons, most notably Hywel y Fwyall (Hywel of the Axe, from the era of Edward III), a formation using both an unmodified weapon-name and a definite article. Other examples of this general name pattern include Ithel Aur gledde (Ithel golden-sword, 1230) and numerous "early, semi-legendary figures" with nicknames like gleddefrudd (red-sword), gyllell fawr (big knife), and baladyr bras (broad spear).

While some of our commenters expressed concern that this device might violate the ban on inverted animals, this is a period motif. It can be seen depicted in Povey's German Roll from the early 15th century (a part of which is reproduced on p. 138 of Heraldry, by Bedingfeld / Gwynn-Jones). While we could not find any further examples of paired bird's jambes in Seibmacher, single bird's jambes are common. Given this evidence, we feel that her heraldry is within the bounds of historical, western European design.

This name is intended to be masculine and the submitter cares most that the name means "Seamus, son of Maolán."

Seamus is found in Ó Corráin & Maguire (s.n. Séamus) and was "common among the Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland and was adopted by the native Irish."

Woulfe lists mac Maoláin as a header form meaning "son of Maolán" and states "In the 12th century, Mac Maoláin was lord of Gaileang Breagh."

Argent, a winged bull passant gules, on a chief sable three escallops inverted Or.

Her name was registered in 10/02.

This name is intended to be feminine. The submitter desires an authentic post-14th century English name and allows minor changes only.

Viola is a header form in Withycombe. It is the name of Shakespeare's heroine in Twelfth Night. It is also occurs as a name in Gower's (b. 1330, d. 1408) Confessio Amantis (admittedly, written in Latin). Violet is another header form, derived from the same Latin root (viola), and Withycombe states that Violette is the name of a "wife of Sir John Chandos (died 1370) … In the 16th century it is fairly common in Scotland." Given the use of Violet(te) in the British Isles in period, and the use of Viola in both the Confessio Amantis and Twelfth Night, we believe that the name is registerable.

Thornhaven is a constructed locative byname intended to mean "harbor where thorns grow." Ekwall gives several examples of placenames beginning with Thorn-, such as Thornhill, Thorneye, and Thornbush, and s.n. Keyhaven dates this spelling of the element –haven, meaning 'harbor,' to 1228.