Names from 14th C Périgueux

by Sara L. Uckelman (Aryanhwy merch Catmael)

© renewed 2007, 2011, 2012 Sara L. Uckelman; all rights reserved
© 2003; Sara L. Friedemann
last updated 03Jul12

Introduction

The following 36 feminine given names and 449 masculine given names are from a mid-14th century taxation record from Périgueux, which is in the southwest of France, about 66 miles ENE of Bordeaux, 44 miles SSW of Limoges, and about 35 miles SE of Angoulême. The surnames from this data are included in my draft book, Bynames in Medieval France.

France today is a unified country with a common language. That was not true in the 14th century: It was a collection of dialects, some quite similar, some quite different. The most significant division was between the langue d'oil, or French, spoken in the north, and the langue d'oc, also called Occitan or Provençal, spoken in the south. These were different languages, not just dialects of the same language, and names in them were often quite different.

As you can see from this map, Limoges (and thus Périgueux) is in the region that spoke the Occitan dialect of Limousin. The spellings of the names in this record reflect many of the dialectal differences, and are therefore thus only really appropriate for the south-western part of France.

I have organized the names into two lists for each gender: by frequency and alphabetically. The frequential list has variants and diminutives grouped together. You can also look at the raw data.

Note: The frequencies of names found in this article should not be taken as completely representative of the frequencies of the names in the general population. This is because many of the entries (about half) have abbreviated the given name, e.g. P. de Balho and W. La Rocha. I do not know what these abbreviations stand for (but it is likely for Occitan forms of Peter and William, respectively), and have thus not included them in the article.

Feminine Names, by frequency

Feminine Names, alphabetically

Masculine Names, alphabetically

Source: Higounet-Nadal, Arlette, Les Comptes de la taille et les sources de l'histoire démographique de Périgueux au XIVe siècle (Paris, S.E.V.P.E.N., 1965.)