Hello! I was wondering if you might be able to help with some name documentation. I’m an Anglo-Saxon from the Kingdom of Mercia in 910 AD, and the name I want to go with is Hardwin Godricsson. Thank you in advance!!

Hi, @spunky-punk-raven​!

Hardwin was the harder of these (har har) to find, at least within 100 years of your 910 AD date.

There wasn’t an entry for it in St. Gabriel, which is my go-to source for name stuff, but they do point to this nifty resource for Anglo Saxon names: the PASE Database, part of the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England.

A database of individuals mentioned in pre-Conquest English documents. Alphabetized by modern standard form; the “recorded forms” heading gives original spellings. The database is also indexed by status, possessions, occupations, relationships, and more. This database replaces an olderlist of Anglo-Saxon people recorded in selected reference works.

When searching PASE for Hardwin using PASE – 1066 seems to be the earliest, though there are some alternative spellings in the Domesday source.

PASE resource’s results for Godirc: earliest here is 970.

Hardwin has been registered before, [Link], but I can’t see the documentation to know what they used.

I can’t find Godricsson (with two s’s), but I did find Godricson, registered relatively recently (it passed in 2012): [Link]

I’m not a herald, so I totally recommend reaching out to the SCA Heraldry Chat Facebook Group with this (or ask your local herald to do so), because they’re way better at this than I am. But I would say that this is possible, if you aren’t super tied-down to the 910 date and need exact documentation for that year.

Good luck! 😀

EDIT: Apparently my PASE links didn’t work, because PASE is weird. But under Database > Persons > Name, you can sort by letter and then name to see all the entries. Thank you to SCA Heraldry Chat for pointing out my error! [Permalink to that FB thread. <3]

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