Yorkshire Given Names from 1379

by Talan Gwynek (Brian M. Scott)
scott@math.csuohio.edu

The assessment roll of the 1379 Poll Tax for Howdenshire Hundred in Yorkshire East Riding includes the forenames of approximately 1794 women and 1665 men. (In a few cases the sex of an unmarried person cannot be determined.) I have arranged these names in descending order of frequency after combining variants and diminutives. If a name occurs in just one form, that form is followed by the number of times the name occurs in the roll. If a name occurs in several forms (including diminutives), the most common form appears as a headword. It is followed by a fraction whose numerator gives the number of occurrences of the headword form, and whose denominator gives the total number of occurrences of the name in all forms. Thus, the entry Cecilia 57/80 means that the specific form Cecilia occurs 57 times, while its variants and diminutives occur another 23 times for a total of 80 instances of the name. The variants and diminutives are listed with their respective frequencies under the main forms. Numbers in square brackets refer to the footnotes.

This is a Latin record, and therefore the names have quite consistently been recorded in their Latin forms. And since they follow the preposition de, they are all in the ablative case. These facts have different consequences which are explained separately for masculine and feminine names.

Parts of names enclosed in square brackets are editorial emendations in my source; in my counting I have assumed that these editorial emendations are correct. Starred names are diminutives.

Feminine names
Masculine names

Yorkshire Masculine Names from 1379

These names were drawn from a Latin record in which all names were recorded in Latinized forms and in the ablative case. If the Latinized form ended in -us, the ending in the ablative case was -o, and conversely. From a recorded Alano, for instance, we can deduce a nominative case Alanus. In these cases I have restored the nominative case with the ending in parentheses. Thus, the name that appears in this table as Alan(us) actually occurs in the roll as Alano. A few names had standard Latinizations in other declensions; these are treated in the notes, as are apparent instances of vernacular forms that slipped past the clerk's guard.

It should be noted that in many cases the Latinized names are quite different from the forms that were in common use. Dionysius, for instance, represents a vernacular Denis or Denys, and Galfridus stands for Geoffrey, Jeffrey, etc. In records of this date surnames and bynames are much less thoroughly Latinized, so patronymic surnames often give a clearer picture of the vernacular forms of given names in common use. With some entries I have included in curly braces {like this} some possible vernacular equivalents, giving preference to forms deducible from surnames and bynames in this roll. Starred forms (*) are diminutives and pet forms found in patronymic surnames. No non-diminutive vernacular form is given (1) when the name does not seem to have been Latinized, and (2) when no vernacular form can be deduced from the surname data in this roll or contemporary Yorkshire data, but one otherwise attested for the Middle Ages can be obtained by dropping the Latin ending -us. Forms that differ more significantly from the Latinized versions and are well-attested for the Middle Ages but not supported by the available contemporary Yorkshire data are given in quotations marks.

The Names

Johanne	555/558	{Jon, John, Jak*}	[1]	Dionisi(us)	9	{Denys}
Johanna	3			Simone	6/8	{Simon, Simond, Sym*}	[10]
Willelm(us)	339/340	{William, Will, Wylkyn, Wilcok*}	[2]	Symoñ	1
Willlelm(us)	1			Symone	1
Thoma	209/215	{Thomas, Tom, Tomlyn}	[3]	Galfrid(us)	6	{Geoffrey, Jeffrey}
Thomas	1			Radulph(us)	6	{Rauf, Ralf}
Toma	5			Gerard(us)	4
Robert(us)	174/176	{Robert, Dob, Dobyn, Hob, Robyn}	[4]	Gilbert(us)	3	{Gilberd, Gilbert}
Robert	1			Philipp(us)	3	{Philipp}
Roberti	1			Clemente	2	{Clement}	[11]
Ricard(us)	89	{Richard, Dyk, Dicon}		Edmund(us)	2
Adam	43/46	{Adam, Adcok, Adkyn}	[5]	Elya	2	{Elys}	[12]
Adam(us)	3			Jacob(us)	2		[13]
Henric(us)	44	{Henry}	[6]	Laurenci(us)	2	{Laurence, Low*}
Roger(us)	32	{Roger}		Albin(us)	1
Nichola(us)	28	{Nicol, Colyn, Nik*}		Alexandr(us)	1	{Alisandre}
Walter(us)	19/20	{Walter, Wat*}	[7]	Cutbert(us)	1	{Cutbert, Cutte*}
Walter	1			Dauid	1	{Dawe, Daud}	[14]
Petr(us)	18	{Pyers}		Gouen	1		[15]
Stephan(us)	16/17	{Steuen}	[8]	Jok	1		[16]
Sthephan(us)	1			Mathe(us)	1	{Mathew, Makok*}
Alan(us)	12	{Alayn}		Randulph(us)	1	{Randolf}
Hugone	11/12	{Hugh}	[9]	Raynald(us)	1
Hugo	1
				Total:		~1665 names

Masculine Name Notes

[1] The nominative case is Johannes. Johanna is normally the feminine form of the name; these are apparently scribal errors.
[2] Willlelmus is a scribal error.
[3] Thomas is the nominative case, appearing here through scribal carelessness. Toma is a variant spelling of the more usual form; the nominative Tomas is occasionally found at about this time in other records.
[4] Roberti is a Latinized genitive case incorrectly used by the clerk; Robert is the vernacular form.
[5] The name was either treated as indeclinable, as in the majority of cases in this record, or Latinized Adamus.
[6] This was apparently usually pronounced Harry.
[7] Walter is the vernacular form.
[8] Sthephano is best thought of as a scribal error based on occasional use of th for the sound of t in other contexts.
[9] Hugo is the nominative case, not the vernacular; that was Hewe or Howe (in several variants).
[10] The nominative case is Simon. The tilde in Symoñ represents an omitted final -e.
[11] The nominative case is Clemens.
[12] The nominative case was Elyas or Elias.
[13] Latin Jacobus was used for both Jacob and James.
[14] The name was usually treated as indeclinable, so this is also the nominative case. (Here u corresponds to modern v.)
[15] This appears to be a variant of Gavin.
[16] Perhaps a short form of the Breton name Judicael, a fairly common name in Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Feminine Names from 1379

These names were drawn from a Latin record in which all names were recorded in Latinized forms and in the ablative case. Fortunately, for most feminine names the ablative and nominative cases of the name are identical; the major exception is Agnes, whose ablative case is Agnete. However, it should be noted that these are official documentary forms of the names that these women actually bore. For instance, the women whose names were recorded as Dionisia and Auicia were probably called Denis and Avice respectively. (The clerk consistently wrote u where we would use v.) Similarly, an official Cecilia probably hides an everyday Sisley or even Sissot.

Parts of names enclosed in square brackets are editorial emendations in my source; starred names are diminutives.

The Names

Alicia	400 / 401		Cristiana	18 / 24		Lucia	8
Alisia	1		Kristiana	3		Eua	4 / 7
Agnete	265 / 267	[1]	Crystiana	1		Euota*	3
Augnete	1		Cristiania	1	[6]	Amicia	6
Annya	1	[2]	Cristina	1	[7]	Petronilla	6
Johanna	237		Beatrice	23		Sibilla	6
Emma	131 / 138		Dionisia	15 / 21		Agatha	4
Emmota*	7		Dyonisia	2		Anabilla	4
Elena	96		Dyonicia	1		Maria	1 / 4
Isabella	95		Diota*	2		Mariota*	3
Margareta	81 / 91		Dyota*	1		Leticia	2
Mergareta	1		Margeria	5 / 18		Rosa	2
Marg[areta]	1		Margor[ia]	1		Sara	1 / 2
Marg...	1	[3]	Marioria	11		Sarrota*	1
Mar'	1	[4]	Marrio[ria]	1		Amy	1
Magota*	6		Elizabetha	10 / 15		Claricia	1
Cecilia	57 / 80		Elizabe{gh}	1	[8]	Gemette*	1	[10]
Cicilia	19		Elizota*	3		Hawysia	1
Sissota*	3		Elisota*	1		Heufemia	1
Syssota*	1		Custancia	14		Mariona	1
Matilda	65		Idonia	9 / 13		May	1
Juliana	59		Idonea	2		Oliue	1
Katerina	40		Ydonea	1
Isolda	26 / 27		Idon	1	[9]
Esota	1	[5]	Auicia	11		Total:	1794	names

Feminine Name Notes

[1] This is the Latin ablative of Agnes.
[2] It is not clear what name this is supposed to represent; I have put it here on the basis of the possibility that it is a corrupt version of Annys, the vernacular form of Agnes.
[3] This could represent some version of Margeria as well, but Margareta is more common, so I put it here. (The ellipsis is provided by the editors of my source and appears to represent an unreadable portion of the manuscript.)
[4] This too could represent Margeria, Marioria, but I have chosen to place it with the more common name.
[5] This seems to be either a variant or a diminutive of Isolda, but it is not clear which it is.
[6] We might consider this a slightly different name, but I suspect that it is just a variant Latinization of the underlying vernacular name.
[7] Technically this is a slightly different name, derived from Old English christen Christian rather than Latin christianus Christian, but it is not clear how carefully the distinction was maintained in the 14th c., so I have put it here.
[8] The {gh} represents the letter yogh.
[9] This is probably the actual vernacular form.
[10] This appears to be a feminine diminutive of James, but the gender cannot be certainly determined from the record. This may also be an oblique case ending different from the nominative, though the difference probably matters only for the written record, not for the vernacular pronunciation.

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