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a good example is given by the Vita of saint aldegundis (vii c., Hainaut) which men- tions a certain “Madelgarius known as Vincentius”.42
similar data is available for later centuries. Combinations of a vernacular name of germanic or Romanic origin with a biblical name or a name of a martyr are not uncom- mon in the French Midi (which i know better than other regions) as well as elsewhere in south-West Europe.43 true, only few of these examples are really transparent and watertight; the best i can give today comes from 10th c. Rodez.44 Yet i would rather make emphasis on three very particular cases referring to the southern French nobility which are relatively well documented.
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rial” trace in Western European anthroponymics. His daughter married to the count of Provence Boso was called Constantina or Constantia, just as her granddaughter, the wife of the Capetian king Robert ii. apparently it was this marriage which made the name Constantia popular among the Western European elite — just as, a few decades later, the marriage of their son, king Henry i with the Russian princess anne, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, and the ascendancy to the throne of their son, king Philip i, entailed the proliferation among the aristocracy of this name heretofore hardly known at all in the West.50 this, for sure, was a true Christian name.
another fact is connected with Raymond iii of toulouse (d. c. 944). in one of his charters, in other aspects quite ordinary, we unexpectedly read: “Raymond... whose other name, by god’s will, is Ponce”.51 in other extant documents he’s called either Raymond (a family name born for instance by his father) or Ponce. in chronicles he’s always named Raymond.52 J.-P.Poly who has specially studied this case thinks that we’re dealing with a sort of flirting of the counts of toulouse whose roots were in the north of France with the local elite for whom the cult of saint Pontius, a mid 5th c. bishop of Cimiez,53 was one of the most important, just as the name Ponce was among the most popular.54 in my opinion it could just as well be a baptismal name. in fact the two hypotheses are certainly compatible. the formula “by god’s will”, quite strange in this context, may be indicative — after all in this time naming, at least by a vernacular name, was a secular affair of the family in which the Church didn’t meddle. i therefore assume that we are dealing here with a baptismal name chosen for the reasons so well outlined by J.-P.Poly.
We can only guess why have the sources preserved us the second name of the count Raymond. southern French charters of the ix-xi c. (and their count is by thousands) extremely rarely contain comparable data concerning another person. One of the pos- sible explanations is that Raymond was the founder of an important abbey saint-Pons- de-thomière (in the Cevennes, to the east of Mazamet) and it is in the charters coming from this abbey that Raymond is called Ponce.55 it’s quite probable that in this way the count tried to emphasize his special proximity to the cult of saint Pontius. it has been suggested that in this monastery he found his last repose; here he was remembered as
50. Jean dunbabin, “What is in a name? Philip, King of France”, Speculum, 68 (1993), p. 949-968.
51. Claude devic, Joseph vaiSSèTe (eds.), Histoire générale..., t. 5. Preuves, toulouse, 1875, nº 66 (a. 936):
“Raymundi... cui aliud nutu Dei nomen est Pontii”; nº 69 (a. 937): “ego Raimundus qui et Pontius...”.
52. Flodoardus reMenSiS, Annales, a. 932, 944; Richerius SenonienSiS, Historiarum libri quattuor, i.64; ii.39;
iii.92.
53. Об этом культе см.: Claude paSSeT, La passion de Pons de Cimiez. Sources et tradition: les sources manuscrites de la “Passio” de Pons de Cimiez, texte latin et traduction française; les fragments carolingiens de l’Abbaye de Saint Pons, étude et interprétation, diffusion galerie Blanc et noir, nice, 1977.
54. Jean-Pierre poly, “l’autre nom du comte Ramon”, Xavier barral, Dominique iogna-praT, anscari Mundó, Josep Maria Salrach, Michel ziMMerMann (dirs.), Catalunya i França Meridional a l’entorn de l’any mil. (Colloque international C.N.R.S./Generalitat de Catalunya Hugues Capet 987-1987), Barcelona, 1991, p. 66-95.
55. Claude devic, Joseph vaiSSèTe (eds.), Histoire générale..., t. 5. Preuves. toulouse, 1875, nº 67 (a. 936); nº 69 (a. 937); nº 74.1 (a. 940); nº 74.2 (a. 940); nº 77 (a. 942); nº 117 (a. 969); nº 125 (ca. 972); nº 126 (ca. 972).
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Ponce.56 in the charters of his wife, countess garsinde, he also figures by this name.57 However in the documents issued by his overlord, king louis iV d’Outremer,58 by the bishop of Cahors and by a certain vassal, his namesake,59 he’s called Raymond. Other vassals who mention the count’s name in their charters — the viscount of narbonne Odon and the viscount of albi aton60 — as well as the archbishop aymery of narbonne61 speak of him as of Ponce. in the only document where, together with this archbishop, the count appears as the co-chairman of a court he’s also named Ponce.62 Evidently it was quite often used as a sole name.
the third case is somewhat different. Duke guillaume V of aquitaine (d. 1030) had four sons who survived him: two born in his first wedlock — they were guillaume Vi (1030-1038) and Eudes (1038-1039) — and two born in his third wedlock, with agnes of Burgundy. they were called Peter and guy. all of them were baptized under these names, and one can’t but wonder how did the name Peter find itself into this row.
Perhaps the boy was meant to take the cloak but there’s no proof for that, and in any case upon the unexpected death of his elder brothers it was his term to become duke.
at this point however he chose to change his name and assume the dynastic name guil- laume and he became to be known as guillaume Vii (1039-1058).63 in the meanwhile his outstanding and industrious mother, having remarried into the House of anjou made sure that her younger son receives another dynastic name — geoffroy. surely enough when guillaume Vii died without male issue guy geoffroy succeeded him under the politically correct name guillaume; he was guillaume Viii (1058-1086).64 We are deal- ing here of course with dynastic names but this should not overshadow the fact that in this family too a combination of a patrimonial and a real Christian name was possible, just as a substitution of the latter by another patrimonial name.
56. Martin de fraMond, “la succession des comtes de toulouse autour de l’an Mil (940-1030): reconsiderations”, Annales du Midi, 105 (1993), p. 461-488; Hélène débax, Martin de fraMond, “les comtes de toulouse aux x et xi siècles et leurs lieux d’inhumation”, Éric crubézy, Christine dieulafaiT (dir.), Le comte de l’An Mil, toulouse, 1996, p. 11-45.
57. Claude devic, Joseph vaiSSèTe (eds.), Histoire générale..., t. 5. Preuves, nº 125 (ca. 972): “ego domina Garcendis comitissa quae fui uxor domni Pontii comitis”; nº 126 (ca. 977).
58. Claude devic, Joseph vaiSSèTe (eds.), Histoire générale..., t. 5 nº 75 (a. 941).
59. Claude devic, Joseph vaiSSèTe (eds.), Histoire générale..., t. 5, nº 55.3 (a. 932); nº 78.3 (a. 943).
60. Claude devic, Joseph vaiSSèTe (eds.), Histoire générale..., t. 5, nº 50 (a. 924); nº 77 (a. 942). the second charter is heavily interpolated. see: Frédéric de gournay, Le Rouergue au tournant de l’An Mil. De l’ordre carolingien à l’ordre féodal (ix-xi siècle), société des lettres, sciences et arts de l'aveyron, CnRs, Université de toulouse-le Mirail, toulouse, 2004, p. 51.
61. Claude devic, Joseph vaiSSèTe (eds.), Histoire générale..., t. 5, nº 127 (a. 977).
62. Claude devic, Joseph vaiSSèTe (eds.), Histoire générale..., t. 5, nº 57 (a. 933).
63. “Chronicon sancti Maxentii Pictavensis”, Paul Marchegay, Emile Mabille (eds.), Chroniques des églises d’Anjou, Société de l’histoire de France, Paris, 1869, p. 400: “Willelmus qui et Petrus, cognomento Acer, adunato exercitu, vallavit castrum Murum...”
64. Charles higouneT, arlette higouneT-nadal, (eds.), Grand cartulaire de la Sauve-Majeure, Fédération historique du sud-Ouest, Bordeaux, 1996, nº 17 (a. 1087): “Guido comes Pictavensis et dux Aquitanie, Guido dictus in baptismo Willelmus cognomina”. alfred richard, Histoire des comtes de Poitou (778-1204), t. i, Picard et fils, Paris, 1903, p. 266-268.
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similar cases can be cited for other regions of Catholic Europe. For example, thomas of split (d. 1268) refers to a late 11th c. king of Croatia as “Demetrius known as Zvonimir”.65 Even more significant, Demetrius himself acknowledged in his charters that he also had a vernacular name.66 this case is by no means unique. in Central and northern Europe a ruler was sometimes called simultaneously by both a Christian and a pagan name: anund iacob in sweden (d. 1050),67 aba shamuel in Hungary (d. 1044),68 Wladislaw Herman in Poland (d. 1102).69 the reasons for the emergence of these double names were individual. Whereas the swedish prince baptized as iacob had to take the traditional pagan name anund in order to become king, the turkish (Kabar) lord aba who usurped the Hungarian crown received his Christian name when already an adult.
as for the Polish duke Wladislaw, born in germany of a german mother, his second name may have been considered Christian by his parents but was in fact a patrimonial vernacular name common to his mother’s family. He was named no doubt in honor of archbishop Herman ii of Cologne (d. 1056), his father’s maternal uncle. it was not a saint’s name for centuries to come. so much said we should not overlook the fact that many baptized slavs or scandinavians of this period are known to us only by their pagan names. saint Václav of Czechia and saint Olaf of norway may to be cited in this context.