Women's names of Germanic origin in the Ragman Roll (1296)

The documents known as Ragman Roll collect the fealties and homages paid by Scottish nobility, prelates and burgesses to Edward I of England after the English invasion of Scotland in the spring and summer of 1296. The Ragman Roll shows c. 1900 given names and surnames/bynames, among them the names of c. 80 women who performed the fealty oath and the feudal homage, as representatives for their husbands or fathers or in their own right. After examining the social role of the women cited in the documents, the analysis will touch on women’s names of Germanic origin appearing in the Ragman Roll, their etymology, their linguistic and historical-cultural background and the ways through which they became part of the women’s name stock in use in thirteenth-century Scotland. In a final appendix, the forms these names show both in the documents and in the extant seals attached to them will be discussed.