I have many persons in my database who have been known by different names, different spellings, different titles, etc. Mathilde might also be Matilda, Matilde, Mathilde or Maud. Élisabeth might by Elizabeth or Isabel. You get the idea. The dukes of Aquitaine were also counts of Poitou, so do I call him Eudes Duke of Aquitaine (or Duc d'Aquitaine) or Eudes Count of Poitou (or Comte de Poitou). My question is this: What source would you first turn to for the name to choose if you were communicating with another medieveal genealogist? Is there one that should take precedence? Or do you just pick one of the names and hope everyone else knows all the variations? Thanks for the input. Tom Patin

On 28/05/2016 9:34 AM, genealogyofthewesternworld via wrote: > I have many persons in my database who have been known by different names, different spellings, different titles, etc. Mathilde might also be Matilda, Matilde, Mathilde or Maud. Élisabeth might by Elizabeth or Isabel. You get the idea. The dukes of Aquitaine were also counts of Poitou, so do I call him Eudes Duke of Aquitaine (or Duc d'Aquitaine) or Eudes Count of Poitou (or Comte de Poitou). Eudes was duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitou for just a few months, and since he had no recorded marriage or offspring he is not likely to cause much confusion. He was also duke of Gascony, so adding that title to his name (that is anyway unique in this context) could help. > > My question is this: What source would you first turn to for the name to choose if you were communicating with another medieveal genealogist? Is there one that should take precedence? Or do you just pick one of the names and hope everyone else knows all the variations? > > My advice would be: don't worry about it. The modern notion that each person should be known by just one consistent name form is not readily applicable to medieval people, and those who study genealogy need to cope with variety. The conventional way through this problem is to use a recognisable modern form of the name in the language you are using, unless this seems stilted (e.g. calling French kings Lewis in English), in which case it is almost always sensible to use the equivalent form that is most common nowadays in their part of the world. Matilda can occur in some peculiar forms, such as Maaltis for instance - there is little value in defaulting to "Maud", as if stuck in a Tennysonian twilight, when we can have no idea if the person in question ever heard this version of her name or connected it with herself. Peter Stewart