With over fifty thousand personal names registered in the Society’s armorial database, it comes as no surprise that a number of name elements are reused numerous times, while others are rare or unique.
I recently looked at the frequency of name elements by their position in a name, which allowed me to pull together the below list of the one hundred most common first names. Continue reading “Frequency of First Names”
As the herald of the Crown Province of Østgarðr, I am well aware that it is the only branch in the Society to bear that particular designator — a result of its distinctive history as the home territory of the earliest royalty of the East Kingdom — and I became curious as to what other unusual branch designators were to be found in the catacombs of the Society’s armorial database.
A bit of data extraction produced the following table: Continue reading “Frequency of Branch Designators”
The SCA’s College of Arms processes around three thousand name and armory submissions per year, attempting to ensure that each is properly structured, historically plausible, and unique within the society. A distributed system of commentary allows the burden of this process to be shared among multiple heralds and minimizes the number of things that fall through the cracks.
By commenting on Letters of Intent, first at the kingdom level and then at the Society level, these other heralds help to catch problems, suggest additional resources, and highlight issues that need to be considered during the monthly decision meetings in which the senior-most heralds make the final determinations as to whether submissions will be accepted or returned. Continue reading “An OSCAR Commentary Checklist”
Sydoc had a registrable name already picked out, so all that was required was some research to document it as historically accurate.
Sydoc nicTalmach is a Scots feminine name of the sixteenth century. Continue reading “Name for Sydoc nicTalmach”
Bahja had a name picked out and a lovely first draft of his device designed, but it needed a bit of adjustment to be registrable by the College of Arms.
Or, on a saltire between four rings purpure gemmed gules a pomegranate slipped and leaved Or seeded gules.
Although the original arrangement Bahja had sketched was problematic, we were able to retain all of the charges and the overall color scheme, while shifting them into a new layout which was free of conflicts.
Bahja is a Arabic masculine ism (given name) and al-Azraq is an Arabic masculine laqab (descriptive byname).
Both are found in “Arabic Names from al-Andalus” (Juliana de Luna, 2008).
Anne is an active fencer in the Province, who wanted to register armory that was personally meaningful, and had already identified a silver tree as the primary charge.
Per fess sable and vert, a tree and in chief a comet bendwise argent.
The illustration of the tree comes from the Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry, affectionately known as the PicDic, while the comet comes from the Viking Answer Lady’s SVG Images For Heralds collection.
Anne is a female given name in multiple parts of medieval Europe. It is found in the Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources at http://dmnes.org/name/Anne as attested to 1485 in Early Modern English, citing Wills and Inventories Illustrative of the History, Manners, Language, Statistics, &c. of the Northern Counties of England, from the Eleventh Century Downwards, volume I of Publications of the Surtees Society. London: J. B. Nicholas and Son, 1835.
Østgarðr is the name of the Crown Province of the East Kingdom, and the byname “of Østgarðr” follows the Branch Name Allowance of SENA PN.1.B.2.f.
Catelin wanted a name and device that reflected her family’s Scottish heritage, and had already picked a basic direction, so it didn’t take much additional effort to help her select something that was both unique and registrable.
Azure, a stag courant to dexter base between two roses argent.
Catelin had been interested in a “bucking” stag, but as that isn’t a recognized heraldic posture, we went looking for alternatives which would produce a similar visual effect.
While “courant to dexter base” is an unusual arrangement, it has been registered twice, most recently in January 2016.
The white rose was a badge of the House of York.
The illustrations for both charges are taken from Fox-Davies’ 1909 book A Complete Guide to Heraldry.
Catelin is a female given name found in the British Isles.
Straquhin is a late-period byname from the Scottish Lowlands.
SENA Appendix C indicates that after 1100, English and Scottish name elements may be combined.
Gibbs is new to the SCA, but had done some other medieval-themed activities under that name and wanted to find a registrable equivalent that fit with their late-period English persona and paid homage to a grandfather named Morris.
Gibbs appears to have originally been a pet name or diminutive version of “Gilbert” before becoming established as a distinct name of its own. Morris seems to be an Anglicized version of the French “Maurice.” Both names came to England with the Norman invasion. Continue reading “Name for Gibbs Moryss”
Seònaid is new to the society, but has thrown herself into it full throttle, and only a few weeks after her first event had designed a device and come up with an authentic name, making my job as herald relatively easy — with just a little fiddling around the edges we were able to get her ideas into registrable shape and submitted.
Per saltire azure and argent, four mullets counterchanged.
The design Seònaid came up with is nice and simple, as were the best period designs.
The fact that there were no conflicts was a pleasant reminder of how much available design space remains open in the society’s armorial.
Continue reading “Name and Device for Seònaid inghean mhic Aoidh”I recently consulted with our provincial seneschal to prepare a submission for a member of his household.
Sable, an eagle Or, orbed, langued, and armed argent, and on a chief Or three lozenges ployé gules.
Josef knew he wanted his arms to include an eagle as a nod to the arms of his knight, and wanted a chief with a set of three charges that would reference his hometown football team, the Steelers, and their stadium, formerly known as Three Rivers. The lozenge ployé, sometimes blazoned an “Arabic napkin,” comes directly from the team’s logo.
Continue reading “Name and Arms for Josef von Ulm”