[MR] [HERALDRY} Laurel RETURNS for June, 2002

[Gorm of Berra]

Unto the Crown, Peers, and Populace of Atlantia does Gorm of Berra, 
Golden Dolphin Herald, send greetings:

At his meetings in June, 2002, Laurel considered the following items; 
 Unfortunately, he was unable to register them, and therefore RETURNED 
them for further work.  In all cases, the submitters have received (or 
will soon be receiving) letters with detailed explanations of the 
reasons for the return, and they will have one year from the date of 
those letters to submit revised items.


      ATLANTIA

Dáirine ingen Chiaragain. Name.

    This name is returned for lack of documentation of Dáirine as a
    given name used by humans in period. Ó Corráin & Maguire (p. 69 s.n.
    Dáirine) says of this name that it was the name of a daughter of
    "the legendary king of Tara, Túathal Techtmar. The foster-mother of
    St Colmán of Daire Mór was also called Dáirine." The first example
    is legendary and so is not support for the registerability of this
    name. In the second example, Dáirine is the name of a foster-mother
    of a saint and is not noted as being a saint herself. Names of
    saints are registerable, regardless of whether they are apocryphal
    or not. This policy is due to the practice in many cultures (though
    not in Gaelic) of naming children for saints. (For more details, see
    the Cover Letter for the September 2001 LoAR.) As Dáirine was not
    herself a saint and the name has not been documented as having been
    otherwise used in period, it falls into the category of a legendary
    name and is not registerable.

Melchior der Grauwulf. Name.

    Submitted as Melchior der Graowulf, the byname was changed to the
    form der Grauwulf at kingdom. The LoI noted that the meaning
    'Melchior the Gray Wolf' was most important to the submitter.
    Additionally, the submitter requested authenticity for 14th to 15th
    C German/Flemish and allowed minor changes. The submitted
    documentation supports a descriptive byname der Wolf, meaning 'the
    Wolf', and a locative byname zum grauen Wolf, meaning 'at the Gray
    Wolf'. This second byname refers to a house name in German, which is
    similar to examples of a sign name in English. While descriptive
    bynames based on animals exist in German, no documentation was
    provided and none was found of a descriptive byname in German that
    is formed of a color combined with an animal. Lacking such evidence,
    a name constructed in this manner is not registerable.

    Bahlow (p. 620 s.n. Wolf(f)) dates Ortlof der Wolf to 1300 and Elbel
    Wolf to 1365. This entry also lists (undated) Weißenwolf 'Whitewolf'
    and zum grauen Wolf 'at the Gray Wolf' as house names. Brechemacher
    (p. 829 s.n. Wolf) dates Haus zum Wolf and Zum grauen Wolf to 1460.
    Therefore, registerable forms of this name include Melchior der
    Wolf, which uses a descriptive byname meaning 'the Wolf', and
    Melchior zum grauen Wolf. Given the undated example of Weißenwolf,
    combined with the dated examples of zum grauen Wolf, a locative form
    such as Grauenwolf is also plausible. We would have changed the name
    to one of these forms in order to register the submitter's name, but
    changing the byname to any of these forms is a major change, which
    the submitter does not allow. In the first case, the byname is still
    a descriptive, but it lacks the element meaning 'gray'. Since
    dropping that element significantly alters the meaning, look, and
    sound of the byname, it is a major change. In the second and third
    examples, the byname retains the element meaning 'gray', but instead
    of describing Melchior as 'the Gray Wolf', it means that Melchior
    lives at or is from a place whose name means 'the gray wolf'. Since
    changing the byname from a descriptive byname to a locative byname
    significantly affects the meaning, it is a major change.

    His armory has been registered under the holding name Melchior of
    Saint Georges.

Tamás Búndas. Name change from Llewelynus Luctuosus.

    The submitter requested authenticity for Slovak and allowed any
    changes. The only documentation submitted for the byname was the
    comment in the LoI that "[s]ubmitter claims Bundas is Slovakian for
    Shaggy". Additionally, the submitter spelled the byname as Búnda{sv}
    on the form, rather than as Búndas as it was rendered on the LoI. A
    simple statement of the meaning of a word is not sufficient support
    for registration. Nebuly found information regarding this name:

        If the submitter wants a Slovakian name, then he will need to
        look for Slovakian resources. The submitted name is entirely
        Hungarian. Slovakian is a Slavic language, in the same group as
        Czech and Polish, whereas Hungarian is not an Indo-European
        language at all - its closest European relatives are Finnish and
        Estonian. Slavic cultures and Hungarian have different naming
        practices, though the general principles still seem to apply. I
        will address this submission as a Hungarian name, since it is in
        the Hungarian language.

        The given name Tamás is the Hungarian form of Thomas. It does
        appear in our period, but without the accent (Kázmér, s.n.
        Tamás). There is no byname Búndas; it is correctly spelled
        Bundás, with the accent over the a. The name means "long-haired"
        in reference to dogs or other animals (Kázmér, s.n. Bundás). Its
        use as a byname appears to be an occupational name for one who
        raises long-hairs. Unfortunately, the earliest record of this
        byname in Hungary dates only to 1716.

        My Slovakian and Czech resources are limited. My Slovak
        dictionary indicates that a bunda is an anorak or parka in the
        modern language.

    The LoI neglected to mention that the submitter intentionally
    rendered his name in Hungarian. The "Notes" section of his name
    submission form explains that

        Slovakia was a region in Hungary with naming conventions common
        to Magyar & Hungarian systems. Since Slovak did not exist as a
        written language until 19th C. Therefore using Magyar naming
        conventions of given name, then by or descriptive.

    As no evidence was found that any form of Búndas is a period word,
    we are unable to register this name.