The Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armory - SCA Heraldry

The Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armory:The Rules for Submissionsword) placenames used in locative bynames.Most frequently these use a prepositional phrase, like de Paris, von Massenbach, or da Bologna. Sometimes thepreposition is dropped, and simply an unmodified placename is used as a byname, like York, Langenberg, orVillanova.2. Locative Bynames from Generic Topographical Features: Locative bynames are also formed from generic descriptionssuch as Broke 'brook', Vega 'meadow', or Bois 'wood'.Most of these bynames are created as a prepositional phrase like atte Broke, de la Vega, or du Bois. Sometimes thepreposition is dropped and an unmodified toponymic is used, like Castle, Molin and Serra.3. Adjectival Bynames of Location: Some bynames describe someone as being associated with a place as an adjective,like l'Alemant 'the German,' Cornyshe, Aragones, or al-Ishbilī 'the guy from Sevilla.'Some languages only use this type of locative byname (rather than types 1 & 2 above), like Arabic and Russian. InRussian, a variety of forms are used to indicate locations, such as Novgorodets, Novgorodtsev, and Novgorodski, allmeaning 'from Novgorod.'4. Inn-sign Names: Some languages – English, French, and German – include bynames that identify people as living neara sign of the sort used for taverns as well as houses of various sorts. Examples include English atte Rose, German zumGrifen, and French aux Deux Espees or du Cat Rouge.C. Occupational Bynames: An occupational byname describes an individual in terms of an occupation, generally one thatthey hold, but sometimes one that a parent or other relative holds. They are common in some languages. Otherlanguages, like Gaelic, Spanish, and Russian, use only a few specific occupational bynames.Most are literal occupational terms, like the English Draper or Dyer, French Boulengier, German Bauer, or SpanishGuerrero. Other occupational bynames take the names of the items that people make, sell, or work with; this are calledmetonymic bynames. Examples include the English Coffyn or the Italian Sardello 'sardine.'D. Descriptive Bynames: A descriptive byname describes an individual in terms of their mental or physical characteristics.The names are literal in nature and the sorts of descriptions another person would immediately recognize. Therefore, thesuitability of a constructed byname of this sort must be shown with attested bynames that are similar in content and levelof abstraction. Examples include the Old Norse gullskeggr 'gold-beard' and the English le Proude 'the proud'.One unusual (and less literal) type of descriptive byname found in English is the "phrase name," which gives a typicalphrase the owner uses as a byname, such as Fallinthewell.E. Dictus, cognomento, and alias Bynames: Especially in earlier European names, a byname is another given name by whicha person is known. They are generally, but not always marked by a phrase like dictus, cognomento, or alias. Both thesuitability of the phrase and the name that follows it must be demonstrated for a particular language and culture.F. Inherited Family Names: In many languages and cultures, literal bynames of the sort described in A through E above gaveway to inherited surnames over time (though in most cultures, some literal bynames continued until after 1600). Somecultures will never adopt inherited family names.Rules for Submissions - January, 2012