Household Names

WARNING: Do not cite this page as a reference. This page is on this wiki only to make the content "searchable" and easier to find. If you find the information you seek here, go to the original sources to verify the information and use them for your documentation.

Examples:

Hospital:

• Cover Letter that talks about Patterns of Order Names which specifically lists "Hospital" in an example of an Order named for a place: http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2005/08/05-08cl.html
• There's a discussion of extensive documentation for a household registration, which includes "hospitale" in the original citation, which is said by Pelican in the LOAR, "could be considered [a] designator": http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2009/01/09-01lar.html
• Per Solveig as of July 2017, " “hospital” originally meant a place of “hospitality”. It is the root word for both “hotel” and “hostel”. The “Hospitaliers” basically ran comfort stations for pilgrims. Consequently, the College of Arms is currently viewing “hospital” as being the same sort of an institution as an “inn” or “house”. The modern hospital has its roots in fancy establishments run in the 19th century for people “taking the cure”. These hospitals advertised having fancy cuisine and other amenities. Eventually, scientific medicine became a more prominent feature of hospitals and patients were put on diets constructed by hospital dieticians.

Other period examples:

• "hospitale de li Anglesi" (hospital of the Anglesi family) in Ary's early 16th C census of Rome article.
• in the MED (Middle English Dictionary):
  • - hospital of the Trinite, in Fossegate, in York
  • - Hospital of Seynt Thomas of Cawntyrbery in Rome
  • - Hospitall of Saint Nicholas in Pountfreit
  • - Hospitall of Saint Thomas the Martir of Acres, in the Citee of London
  • - hospital of {th}e holy goost and seynt petir cherch
  • - hospitall of seynt Iohn Baptist of Wycombe
  • - seynt Speryte hospytalle
• "hospital" in the Middle English Dictionary (includes some personal bynames using the word!): http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED21265
  • "hospital" as an adjective meaning hospitable - http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED21266
• "New English Dictionary on Historical Principles": https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012333863;view=1up;seq=422

Italian Households

Names from an Early 16th C Census of Rome: Household Names - http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/italian/leohousehold.html

Households with Abstract Concepts

There are 34 Compagnie della Calze in Venice named in the Diaries of Marin Sanudo the Younger (Vol. 58). Among the list are:

the Valorosi [Valiant], Floridi [Flourishing], Triumphanti [Triumphant], Immortalli [Immortals], Fortunati [Lucky], Eterni [Eternal], Fausti [Auspicious], Modesti [Humble/Modest], Prudenti [Prudent], Potenti [Powerful], Fraterni [Fraternal], Perpetui [Perpetuals], Liberali [Generous], Semprevivi [Everlivings], Fideli  [Loyal], Felici [Joyful], Regali [Gifted], Signorili [Elegants/Stately], Solennni [Solemns], I Belli [The Beautiful]. 

But in addition to these virtue based names, we also find the Sbragazai [Baggy Pants]

I_diarii_di_Marino_Sanuto_vol_58.pdf

Sources:

Academy of St. Gabriel "Medieval Names Archive" - http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/
Database of medieval names (from the Medieval Names Archive) - http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/database/
Archive of St. Gabriel reports - http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/archive.cgi

Laurel Name Articles - http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/

IGI Searches, batches beginning with C, J, K, M (except M17 and M18), or P are acceptable - https://familysearch.org/search/collection/igi

Academy of St. Gabriel "Medieval Names Archive" - http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/nonhuman.shtml

"A Brief, Incomplete, and Rather Stopgap Article about European Household and Other Group Names Before 1600" - http://medievalscotland.org/names/eurohouseholds/index.shtml

Gaelic Household Names: Medieval Gaelic Clan, Household, and Other Group Names - http://medievalscotland.org/scotnames/households.shtml

German Household Names: German Surnames Based on House Names (incomplete as of 9/2012) - http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/german/germanhouse.html

Italian Household Names: "Names from an Early 16th C Census of Rome: Household Names" - http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/italian/leohousehold.html

Old Venetian palaces and old Venetian folk by Thomas Okey, lists several Casas, Ca' da Mosto, Ca' del Duca, Ca' Foscari, etc. in the index at Google books - http://books.google.com/books?id=vyMNAAAAYAAJ%7Cbooks.google.com/books?id=vyMNAAAAYAAJ

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Rules:

SENA Non-Personal Names:

The complete rules on household names (and other non-personal names) in the SCA - http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/sena.html#NPN

SENA NPN.1.C.2.C:

http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/sena.html#NPN1

"Lingua Anglica Allowance: We also allow the registration of translations of attested and constructed household names, heraldic titles, and order names into standard modern English, which we call the lingua Anglica rule."

SENA Appendix E: Currently Registerable Designators for Non-Personal Name Submissions

http://heraldry.sca.org/sena.html#AppendixE

D. Household Names: This category includes guilds, military companies, and similar groups of people. A variety of designators have been registered for households; in any case both the designator and substantive element must follow a single pattern for a group of individuals found in period. Models that have been used include groups like a guild or military company, members of a dynastic or personal household, and the people resident at an inn or other named residence. Discussions of registerable designators for household names can be found at:

• Sharon Krossa, "A Brief, Incomplete, and Rather Stopgap Article about European Household and Other Group Names Before 1600" http://medievalscotland.org/names/eurohouseholds/index.shtml
• The Compiled Names Precedents: Designations - http://heraldry.sca.org/precedents/CompiledNamePrecedents/Designations.html [link corrected 10/26/2013]

Precedents:

Precedents of the SCA College of Arms - http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/precedents.html
Morsulus Heralds Website - http://www.morsulus.org/ (to search the LoARs and Precedents)

Use the above links to be sure any precedents listed below haven't been superseded by newer precedents.

Collected Precedents: Branch/Group Names -

http://heraldry.sca.org/precedents/CompiledNamePrecedents/BranchGroupNames.html

Collected Precedents: Household/Guild Names -

http://heraldry.sca.org/precedents/CompiledNamePrecedents/HouseholdGuildNames.html

Collected Precedents: Designations -

http://heraldry.sca.org/precedents/CompiledNamePrecedents/Designations.html

Registerability:

From Pelican: Household names based on a person's full name

Previous precedent stated that the only attested pattern for English household names using a person's full name was House of + given name + last name. [Brigit inghean ui Dhomhnaill. Household name House of Hammer Fall, 11/2014 LoAR, A-East] However, new data has now been found in English and Scots for inn-sign names using a person's full name, including Walter Chepmannis taveroun (1526) and the Eden Berys [Tavern] (1483). Based on this new data, as of the date of publication of this Letter, we hereby expand the 2014 precedent and expressly allow English and Scots household names in the form given name + last name + House. Further, the designators Inn, Tavern or Brewhouse (or any period spellings thereof) can be used instead of House in English or Scots inn-sign names based on a person's full name. Where the person's full name comes before the designator, it should be in the possessive form. This ruling applies only to English and Scots household names; the use of this pattern for household names in other languages must be documented. https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2018/07/18-07cl.html#5

April 2018 - French Household Names

Charles Fleming. Household name Maison du Poulet Noir. Submitted as Maison de Poulet Sable, this household name was intended to follow the pattern of naming French inns based on a heraldic charge and a color. Two changes to this name were necessary to make it registerable. First, French grammar requires the preposition du rather than de before the word Poulet.

Second, and more importantly, we presently have no evidence that heraldic tinctures such as sable were used in French inn-sign names such as Maison du Poulet X. French inn-sign names such as la maison du Chappeau rouge, l'enseigne de la Rose blanche use ordinary vernacular color terms to describe the heraldic charges. Thus, until evidence is found supporting the use of heraldic tinctures in French inn-sign names, French household names relying on the pattern heraldic charge + color must use vernacular color terms such as rouge and blanche as opposed to heraldic tincture terms. See the Cover Letter for a more detailed discussion.

Although the submitter allowed no major changes, he specifically permitted the name to be changed to Maison du Poulet Noir, using the ordinary vernacular French color term for "black," for registration. The other option requested by the submitter, Maison de Poulet Flambé, could not be documented as a period household name. https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2018/04/18-04lar.html?fbclid=IwAR2nrTfEviuaqyGwjho2qA6gq2XYzCiNNWMUGOp8G1kxkcyn4sNrZVwvVtM#91

July 2016 CL - Saint's Names (Constructed or Otherwise) in Non-Personal Names

Recently, we've had a number of order name submissions where the substantive element has consisted of a saint's full name, often using the English surname as given name precedent. Saint's names and devotional names in period are modified in various ways, but these modifiers and bynames are generally locative or descriptive. Such "full" saint's names tend to appear in the names of churches and religious institutions, or other place names.

Examples include the church Seint Marie at Hille and the festival of Seint Peter called th'Advincle (referring to S. Petrus ad vincula, "Saint Peter in chains"), both found in the Middle English Dictionary. The church Sainte Pancrace in the ffelde is found in a 1495 will ['Appendices', in Survey of London: Volume 17, the Parish of St Pancras Part 1: the Village of Highgate, http:www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol17/pt1/pp138-148]. The sign name a lymage Sainct Jehan l'evangeliste ("at the image [of] Saint John the Evangelist") is part of the publishing location for Raoul Le Fèvre's Les proesses et vaillances du preux Hercule from 1500 (http:gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b86001264/f215.image). Additional examples found by Siren include Ordre Monsieur Saint Michel Archange ("Order of my lord Saint Michael archangel") and nostra Religione di Santo Stefano Papa ("our religious-order of Saint Stephen, pope").

In July 2006 we ruled: > Several commenters noted that the College cannot canonize new saints. However, we feel that registering a name that uses the descriptive Saint does not do this, but rather follows a well documented medieval tradition of local shrines and saints who may or may not be recognized by the hierarchy in Rome. In addition, this would not be the first such registration; the College of St. Bunstable, a group name formed from a fictional saint's name, was registered in August 1981, and in August 1990, the College of Saint Joan was registered although Joan of Arc was not canonized until 1920. While philosophically, it is certainly better recreation to use a real-life saint's name when using this model to create an order name, there is no reason why these sorts of construction should not be allowed the same latitude allowed by our rules for other constructed names. The name William the Cooper is a well-formed English name whose elements can all be documented to period, therefore Saint William the Cooper is an expected construction. [Caer Galen, Barony of. Order name Order of Saint William the Cooper, July 2006, A-Outlands] Further, NPN3D of SENA states, "The Order of Saint William the Cooper is registerable, even though this is a constructed saint's name, as long as there is no registered William the Cooper."

In December 2015, we ruled the following: > Submitted as Order of the Noble Touch, the Letter of Intent documented this order name using the pattern of naming an order after a founder or saint, and documented Noble Touch as a late period English name. However, no evidence was presented to show that orders were named after the full names of such individuals, rather than just a given name (or Saint [given name]), or that such an order would include a definite article before the name. Without such documentation, this name cannot be registered as an order name. [Wintermist, Barony of, Company of Noble Touch, December 2015, A-Caid] A submission this month, Order of Blood of the Wood, follows the pattern of [constructed saint's name] of [place name]. Examples of this pattern are found in Juliana de Luna's article "Medieval Secular Order Names" (http://heraldry.sca.org/names/order/new/). Examples include Les Chevaliers de Nostre Dame de la Noble Maison ("the knights of Our Lady of the Noble House"), Saint George of Rougemont, and Our Lady of Gelders. Therefore, the pattern of using a saint from a specific place is registerable in order names, although we note that this pattern is not common compared to just using the saint's given name.

Although we have examples of saints who bore inherited surnames, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries, we do not have evidence that such surnames and full names were used in order names. We will continue to register orders named after saints with literal locative or descriptive bynames, as these patterns are attested or can be derived from other types of non-personal names found in period. Therefore, patterns such as Order of [given name] of [place name] and Order of [given name] the [descriptive term] are registerable. We will not register orders named after the full names of saints when the surnames are inherited forms, unless documentation is found to show that this pattern follows period practice, but we will allow this pattern in other types of non-personal names as appropriate (e.g., household names). http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2016/07/16-07cl.html

Dec 2015 - Iron in Household Names

A submission this month documented the use of Iron as part of the substantive element in a household name following an inn-sign name pattern. One example of Iron was found in period: the gray period la Crois de Fer ("the Iron Cross"). Given this example and other examples of inn-sign names using the pattern material + heraldic charge, we allow the use of Iron in similar household names.

Several kinds of non-personal names can be derived from descriptions of devices, sign names, and badges; these include order names, heraldic titles, and household names. These household names, derived from the signs used to identify houses and inns, follow a different and wider set of models than similar order names and heraldic titles, derived from personal and order badges. Houses are sometimes marked by metal objects such as tin or pewter pots or dishes, and brass fittings (like Brasenose, from a doorknocker). Iron Cross fits in this pattern. This pattern is not found for order names or heraldic titles, which only use the vernacular forms of heraldic titles. For this reason, this pattern and other patterns found only in household names cannot be used to construct order names and heraldic titles. To register an order name using Iron or similar materials in period order names, evidence for that usage in order names, not just in household names, would be required. Other patterns documented from household names similarly are not evidence to create new order names and heraldic titles. http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2015/12/15-12cl.html

Nov 2014 - On the Designators Fellowship and Free Company

We have had recent submissions with forms of Fellowship as a designator for both an order name and a household name.

Blue Tyger documented fellowship as the lingua Anglica form of the Middle English felau-rede, which is glossed as "A group of associates or companions bound by leadership or kind; a company, band, crew; specif., a body of soldiers or knights" (Middle English Dictionary). In addition, Green Staff found fellowship in the Oxford English Dictionary (s.v. fellowship) as a term referring to a ship's crew (e.g., felschepe of the Kervel) and in guild or company names (e.g., fellowship of the stationers and fellowship of the Merchants Adventurers of England. Lastly, Siren documented the use of fellowship in order names (e.g., Felship of the Garter). Therefore, Fellowship is a reasonable designator for both order and household names.

For another submission, Green Staff documented the designator Free Company in pre-1650 records from Ireland and England and its colonies in the Americas. For example, a petition to establish a free company of adventurers is dated to 1648 [Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England: 1642-1649 (http://books.google.com/books?id=Ei40AQAAMAAJ, p. 138)]. The creation of a free companie in the colony of Virginia is mentioned in 1622 [The Records of the Virginia Company of London (http://books.google.com/books?id=eqQ8AQAAIAAJ, p. 605)]. Just as with the designator Company (see the May 2013 Cover Letter), Fellowship and its cognates can now be used as a designator for any suitable non-personal name. Free Company can be used as a designator for household names. The use of each designator must be appropriate for the type of non-personal name being submitted.

We are therefore directing Palimpsest to develop new wording for the relevant sections of SENA, particularly Appendix E. http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2014/11/14-11cl.html#1

Oct 2013 Some Name Resources (an ongoing series)

This week I was asked why we can't mix and match household name patterns: that is, combine designators from one pattern and substantive elements from another. Let's start with the rules. SENA says:

• The designators for household names must be documented as a form describing a group of people in a particular culture. It must be compatible with the substantive element in terms of content and style. There is no standard designator which is considered compatible with all types of names for groups of people.
• Several kinds of groups of people have served as models for household names. They include a noble household, a military unit, a guild, a group of people associated with an inn or tenement house, a university or school (noting that the word college is reserved for branches), clans, and an organized group of musicians or actors. Designators may be registered in the original language or may take the lingua Anglica form. Suitable substantive elements (like simple descriptions) may take the lingua Anglica form as well.

So, essentially what this says is that a household name can follow pretty much any pattern for a group of people or for patterns for places that hold a group of people, like an inn, dormitory, or abbey. But each of these kinds of household names follows different models, and the entire household name has to follow a single model.

The reason we allow multiple designators for household names, instead of requiring all to use a single designator like house, is to allow for better recreation. Thus, submitters can create household groups that follow models of religious groups, groups of scholars, or military groups, as well as a group of people associated with a noble house. However, that same logic demands that we require the names of households to be internally consistent. You cannot name a household X Abbey but use a model from a brothel to create the rest of the name (no, I don't know models for the names of period brothels). You cannot name a household using a designator for a military company but use a model from a college to create the rest of the name.

Now, we do allow household names, both the designator and the substantive element, to be translated into English using the lingua Anglica allowance: the Frenchl'ostel du B{oe}uf couronné may be registered as House of the Crowned Bull or the German Gesellschaft im Fisch und Falckhen may be registered as the Society of the Fish and Falcon. As with other uses of the lingua Anglica allowance, names may be translated to make them as comprehensible to English speakers as they would be to the speakers of the original language (French, Italian, Old Norse, and the like). Remember that this does not allow the translation of the meanings of personal names or place names; personal names must stay in their original forms, while place names may use their standard modern English form.

Branch names follow a slightly different rule, in part because we require branches to use specific designators which can change as a branch's status changes. We allow any type of branch to use the name of a place of essentially any size, from a small village to a large city or region. Alternately, we allow branches to use a model suitable to their particular designator. This mostly affects colleges and other specialized branches that are unlikely to change type; however, we allow them to change type of branch as well. http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2013/10/13-10cl.html

May 2013 Cover Letter: Company as Order Name Designator

In period, company and its cognates was used to refer to a variety of kinds of groups of people, including military groups, guilds, and knightly orders. Under the Rules for Submissions and SENA, company was limited to household names and not allowed as a designator for order names. However, commenters agreed that we should follow period practice and allow company and other similar words to be used as a designator for any suitable non-personal name.

This of course does not remove the requirement that a designator be documented as appropriate to the type of non-personal name submitted. It simply allows designators to be used for multiple types of non-personal names.

We are therefore directing Palimpsest to develop new wording for the relevant sections of SENA. http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2013/05/13-05cl.html

Mar 2013:

English household names are often derived from personal names. As with other household patterns in English, the pattern is _X('s) House_ or _House of X_, not _House X_. Household names derived from people's names in English take a couple of forms. The most common household name uses the individual's full name, like _{th}e hous of Julyane huxster_ or _sir Henry Percy house_ (both period examples from Sharon Krossa's "A Brief, Incomplete, and Rather Stopgap Article about European Household and Other Group Names Before 1600" (http://medievalscotland.org/names/eurohouseholds/ ). The same pattern is found using _household_ as the designator.

Examples that use only given names, only surnames, or only titles are used in limited contexts. Examples of _X's House_ with given names are found only for saint's names and legendary names, like King Arthur. For surnames, _X's House_ or _X House_ are mostly found in references to actual buildings rather than to people, though they may sometimes be used to refer to the people living in such a building. _House of X_ seems to have been used largely to refer to noble dynasties (like the _House of Lancaster_ and _House of York_. All of these patterns are registerable. http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2013/03/13-03cl.html

Feb 2013: Inn-sign Names

One popular kind of household names are the so called inn-sign names, derived from the names of charges used on signs found on inns and other buildings. These names take forms like House of the White Horse, Haus zum Wolf , or Hostel du Croissant. These types of names are found only in certain parts of Europe, and thus are only registerable in those places where this pattern is found. The pattern is known in English, French, Italian, and German. As of the moment, it is not known in Spain or Eastern Europe.

Information about inn-sign names in English can be found in Mari ingen Briain meic Donnchada's "English Sign Names (http://medievalscotland.org/kmo/inn/ ) and Margaret Makafee's "Comparison of Inn/Shop/House names found London 1473-1600 with those found in the ten shires surrounding London in 1636" (http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~grm/signs-1485-1636.html] ). Latinized inn-sign names can be found in English context as well.

Information about inn-sign names in French can be found in Juliana de Luna's "Inn Signs and House Names in 15th Century Paris (http://medievalscotland.org/jes/ParisInnHouseNames/ ). Examples of these names in bynames can be found in Aryanhwy merch Catmael's "French Names from Paris, 1421, 1423, & 1438" (http://heraldry.sca.org/names/french/paris1423.html ); they use a or aux instead of de.

Information about inn-sign names in Italian can be found in Aryanhwy merch Catmael's "Names from an Early 16th C Census of Rome: Household Names" (http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/italia/leohousehold.html , third grouping). Larger groups of people, equivalent to neighborhoods, also sometimes use inn-sign style names; see Nicholas Eckstein's book The district of the Green Dragon: neighbourhood life and social change in Renaissance Florence (gonfalone del Dragho Verde). A list of Florentine gonfalone is forthcoming, as soon as Pelican can get it done.

Information on German house names has not been put together by an SCA source in English. However, examples of them have been found in a variety of sources and included in Letters of Acceptances and Returns as well as OSCAR.

Dec 2009 - German:

Die Hausnamen und Hauszeichen im mittelalterlichen Freiburg, by Karl Schmidt, published 1930 (The housenames and housesigns of medieval Freiburg)... P 32 considers names based on Bär (bear), including ze dem Bern 1326, zum schwarzen Beren 1565,hus zum guldin Bern der schuchmacher trigstuben 1394, zem roten beren 1390, haus zum weissen Beren in der Vitschivisgasse 1444, zum blawen Beren 1565.

From the February 2011 Letter of Acceptances and Returns, " Commenters were able to find a 1590s byname zum schwarzen Schild (among other places, in Ernst Grohne's Die Hausnamen und Hauszeichen)." Bahlow dates Cunrad zum Grifen to 1297 s.n. Greif(f), a Haus zum Eichhorn to 1460 s.n. Eichhorn, J. van deme Drachin to 1363 s.n. Draa(c)k, Walther zem Sterne to 1255 s.n. Stern, and Vren zergigen (=zur Geige) to 1357 s.n. Geiger.

Brechenmacher dates Burchart zem Rosin to 1295 and Wernher zum Rosen to 1311 s.n. Rose. He also dates Jacobus dictus zum Hirze to 1304 and N. dictus zem Hirtze to 1300 s.n. Hirsch. http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2013/02/13-02cl.html