Names of children during the middle ages.

In My Humble Opinion
1

A guy I know is starting a comic strip and is rather hard pressed for a name for the lead character.
Here is a description:

It’s a medieval-fantasy/humor strip about a 13-year old girl (who’s often mistaken for a boy) who’s sent out on a quest by her ale-swigging dad. Hilarity ensues.
I need suggestions for the girl’s name, as well as the comic title! Anyone wanna help? I haven’t even begun to think about names at this point so I’m not partial to anything.
Some secondary characters will include a herb-smoking jester, a martial artist in a dark robe, a witty know-it-all bard gone bad, an idiotic magic user, maybe a token talking animal or two.
The girl’s description is as follows:
She’s kind of hot-tempered and rude to people, sarcastic, mischievous and lazy, but she can also be sweet and sincere. Her dad gave her a gigantic longsword she can’t even hold up, so she’s a little pessimistic about going on a quest.

Here is a pic:
http://www.roadwaffles.com/newprevu.gif

So does anyone know of any good names from that era? Best I could think of was naming her Christian, but he did not go for it.

2

I’ve got a few, but I’m not sure.
Naomi
Sarah
Alice
Jenna
Holly (my name!)

3

Gwyneth.

4

A name from the bible would be a safe bet: Eve, Mary, Jezebel :wink: . . . .

I seem to recall the most common female name by far was Elizabeth, though this may have been later.

5

I’m fairly certain, Catherine, Mary, and Anne were popular during the middle ages as well. Was Juliet popular or did it become popular later because of Shakespeare. Would Joan have been popular?

6

Hey i read that book!

Oh wait, this is a new comic strip :slight_smile:

Anyway, I read a book last year in my Juvennile Fiction class called Catherine, Called Birdy and the lead character was sort of like what your friend is describing. He/she should check it out and see if there are other names he/she could use. The book is the daily diary of a young girl in the middle ages.

Here’s some more info:

Catherine, Called Birdy
by Karen Cushman
ISBN: 0064405842

Amazon Link

7

Neil Gaiman used the name “Hob Gadling” for his English medieval immortal character in Sandman.

Another potential source is Shakespeare.

8

If the being-mistaken-for-a-boy thing is relevant, you could choose a female version of a male name, such as:

Thomasina (Thomas)
Edwina (Edwin)

or Matilda, which would coveniently confusingly shorten to “Mat.”

Other names that were popular for girls in the Middle Ages include Catherine/Katherine, Jane, Anne, Mary, Elizabeth and its derivatives - Betsy/Bess/Beth etc, Margaret.

Go back to Arthurian times and you get Elaine, Guinevere, Morgana.

Evelyn can be a boy’s or girl’s name (the writer Evelyn Waugh was married to a woman called Evelyn as well) but I don’t know if it was also a girl’s name back then. Likewise Robin, it may only have been a boy’s name then.

9

I remember hearing that Douglas was a girls name in the middle ages.

10

Pretty in Hemp?

11

Alyce
Sybble
Joan
Alsen
Matilda
Johan
Tamsyn
Agnes
Elizabeth
Ann
Catherine
Annys
Phillipa
Tamson
Rawlyn

These names are all from my own family tree.

12

Leia–simple enough

13

I’ve just checked out Selina Hastings’ biography of Waugh. Disappointingly there is no discussion of the androgyny or lack of same relating to Evelyn.

Their friends called them He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn.

14

Old joke from an SCA event that you couldn’t swing a dead squire in a circle without hitting a Morgan (it seemed like every Tom, Dick and Harriet was named Morgan). Would work for gender mistakes.

Go with that name and title the strip Guten Morgan.
If dad was a baker, could be Gluten Morgan.

Alternately, here’s links to some multi-cultural name research from the Middle Ages.

15

I have to say-the girl looks like an Abigail, to me.

16

Call the girl Joan, after another medieval adventurer. And name the comic strip Another Lame Attempt.

17

There are at least one hundred at this site:

http://www.byu.edu/ipt/projects/middleages/LifeTimes/Names.html

18

Alisoun is a good one – it’s the name of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath, and that of the heroine in the Miller’s Tale. There’s also a fourteenth-century lyric by that name…

19

Biblical names and saints’ names would probably be good (make sure the saint is either from during or before the time period of the strip).

You could also use a queen’s name from that time period. For example, England had queens named: Eahlswith/Elswyth, Ecgwynn/Egwine, Elfeda, Eadgifu/Edgiva, Elfgifu/Elfgiva, Ethelfleda, Elfthrith/Elfrida, Emma, Gunhild, Sigrid, Ealdgith, Eadgyth/Edith, Ealdgyth, Matilda, Adeliza, Eleanor, Berengaria, Isabella, Margaret, Philippa, Anne, Joan and Catherin between 868 and 1482 (Everyday Life in the Middle Ages, Sherrilyn Kenyon).

Ooooo, I found some saint names: Genevieve, Hilary, Agnes, Margaret. Bridget/Bride, Agatha, Dorothy, Polycarp*, Colette, Frances, Maud/Mathildis, Mary, Irene, Isidore, Catharine, Rita, Julia, Julitta, Juliana, Martha, Elizabeth, Ethelburga, Veronica, Mary, Christina, Anne, Susanna, Clare, Monica, Rose, Faith, Ursula (patron saint of girls!), Hilda, Cecily**, Viviana, Barbara, Lucy, Anastasia. I only listed the obviously female names but *I though Polycarp deserved to be included. **Cecily should get special notice.

20

Off to IMHO.

bibliophage
moderator GQ