medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Chris Laning wrote:
> On Aug 29, 2008, at 9:19 AM, John Briggs wrote:
>> Chris Laning wrote:
>>> There's also the case of the Percies (Earls of Northumberland) who
>>> had quite a long succession of eldest sons named Henry Algernon
>>> Percy, including the 4th Earl of Northumberland, who was born about
>>> 1449. "Algernon" was originally a descriptive byname, meaning "with
>>> the mustaches," and dating back to William le Perci Ohtlesgernuns
>>> (ca.
>>> 1180).
>>
>> Wikipedia [but what do they know?] suggest that it was the 5th Earl
>> (born 1477) who was Henry Algernon - but I wouldn't mind betting
>> that it was still a byname in his case, as double Christian names
>> don't come in until the 16th century.
>
> My sources suggest there were several of them, in various
> generations. (After trying to disentangle about six Matthew Craddocks
> from another family, one of whom was the first Governor of the
> Massachusetts Bay Colony, I understand why historians get annoyed
> with names that run in families....)
>
> But I've always found the Algernon byname particularly amusing
> because of its meaning. It does seem to be one of the rare cases of a
> second name between the given and surname in England before 1600 (I'm
> aware of barely a dozen examples, several of which are special cases
> in one way or another, e.g. Thomas Posthumous Hoby and Anthony Maria
> Browne).
I still say that it's too early. Posthumus/Posthuma and Maria are known
exceptions.
John Briggs
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|