[MR] Good Link for Neewbies

[Scribe0002 at aol.com]

Greetings to the list from the chilly hills of Sacred Stone!  
 

We are so blessed with energetic and caring folks in our kingdom,  especially 
those who hold one of the most challenging offices in the  chatelaine's 
position. I appreciate their work and efforts to make everyone feel  welcomed and a 
part of this game we play. I know that Lady Margaret's heart  is solidly in 
the right place in sharing the link she did. It is a very helpful  link for 
genealogical researchers, for writers and parents to be. It might  easily seem a 
good source for SCA and can be used as a starting place.
 
However, I would strongly caution folks to not use such sources  alone when 
searching for an SCA name. Find a list of possible names or  meanings at these 
sites that you like, then seek out more authoritative sources  or a herald 
with good sources to narrow the search to something completely  accurate.
 
I've spent most of the last 5 years working in the SCA heraldic submissions  
process. This site, while it has tons of good information, does not have the  
sort of citations and documentation the College of Arms requires such  as 
dates the names were used and period spellings.
 
What I have seen happen many times is a person finds a name in a baby name  
book, genealogical site or similar source. They really like it. Use it.  Become 
quite attached to it. Then they try to register it. At which time they  find 
out that Wendy, while being a lovely English name, was invented in the late  
19th Century for a novel called Peter Pan or that Mary was deemed too sacred a  
name for girls in early Christian Spanish lands and (if I recall correctly) 
all  of period Ireland.
 
I will offer two additional links to amend Lady Margaret's suggestion.  First 
is the collection of names articles on the Laurel web site 
_http://sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names.html_ (http://sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names.html)  and  
second more name articles by a group called St. Gabriel's  Academy (many of whom 
are in the SCA)  at _http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/_ 
(http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/)    Both of these sites offer names from many cultures and times in 
our period of  study and some detailed explanations of how different cultures 
handled  names.
 
I do truly thank Lady Margaret for her service and efforts and in no way  
want to make light of her help. I only wish to make it ultimately more useful.  
We each have our places of greatest interest. Heraldry, and names in 
particular,  are my geekdom of choice in the SCA. I'm always happy to help anyone who 
has  questions in this area. 
 
Be well.
 
~gise
 
 
Gisela Kraken Herald
 
 
 
In a message dated 1/10/2007 2:26:57 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
ladysayher at adelphia.net writes:

Greetings Everyone,
Cyndi's List (of Genealogy Sites on the  Internet) is an excellent 
collection of links for names, locality specific  names, etc. that would 
be of great help for newcomers in choosing their  own name.