Ask a medievalist #1

CAVEAT EMPTOR I did absolutely no research for this whatsoever.

Q: If you were going to choose a medieval name for Minor Miner, what would it be?

A: Ha! Your first mistake was asking a question of an historian. As you may have guessed, the answer is somewhat complicated. It would depend on where I was living, and what period we are talking about.

You might already be aware that the name "Adolf" has dropped out of usage among most people, for reasons that do not need elaborating. In the medieval world, similar changes occurred due to the influence of current events, popular culture and prestige.

Politics might play a role. For example, despite the fact that there was no substantial immigration from the continent to England, within 150 years of the Norman conquest (1066), the English peasantry had largely adopted the names of their conquerors.

Popular culture might also have been important. I have heard that the name "Ganelon", because it was given to the villain of The Song of Roland, dropped out of common usage as the poem gained in popularity. You can also see the spread of names like "Roland" and "Lancelot" among the Italians, for example, as evidence that the chansons de geste and Arthurian romances definitely captivated contemporary audiences.

Finally, because religious sentiment was such an important part of medieval European culture generally, religious sentiment and shifting standards of piety might also influence the choice of names. The popularity of local saints' names (Fructuosus) tended to decline during the later middle ages, as the names of more 'universal' saints (John, James, Mary, et al.) began to become more popular. Names like Francis might also become popular if someone who had that name turned out to be an important or famous saint.

I guess the short answer would be that I don't know. The slightly longer answer is that a lot of names currently floating around were also in use in the middle ages, so in the end it probably wouldn't sound all that strange.