Feminine Names from the Cartularium of the Monastery of Blessed Mary

by Sara L. Uckelman
known in the SCA as Aryanhwy merch Catmael

© 2013 Sara L. Uckelman; all rights reserved
last updated 07Oct13

The following names are taken from the Cartularium Monasterii Beatæ Mariæ Caritatis Andegavensis, a collection of Latin records published in volume 3 of the Archives d'Anjou. Most of the charters are not explicitly dated, but the ones which are not are all from the reigns of Fulk III, Count of Anjou, (987-1040) and his son (by his wife Hildegard) Geoffrey Martel (1040-1060), with most dating after the birth of Geoffrey in 1001. When no dates are listed, the name can be confidently assumed to have occurred sometime during the 11th century.

Though both men and women are recorded in the data, I decided to stick to just the women's names in this article, because they're so much neater. The names are recorded in Latin, and hence are often inflected. I have converted all inflected forms to the nominative, except when the nominative is uncertain; these are noted. Because many people show up in multiple different charters, and under multiple different spellings, I have not been able to give accurate frequency counts. Most the names appeared only once. Some were more common, showing up for four or more people, including: Aalais, Agnes, Amelina, Anna, Elisabeth, Emma, Eremburgis, Hersendis, Hildegardis, Isabel, Maria, Milesendis, Petronilla, Richildis, and Theophania.

Given names alphabetically

Source

Marchegay, Paul, ed., Archives d'Anjou: recueil de documents et mémoires inédits sur ..., Volume 3, http://books.google.de/books?id=ALgDAAAAYAAJ.