Coming up with a new name was a process for me. I wanted something that would have some meaning, but actually make some sense. I mean, if I was going to go to the trouble of actually researching a name, submitting it and trudging through the work, I wanted something special.
My persona has settled over the years into being a scribe (I know, shocking, to people who know me). Specifically, a sofer, or a Jewish scribe who specifically works on calligraphy on pages of the Torahs for communities and for ketubot (marriage certificates), as well as day to day work on occasion for secular matters. This idea appeals to me, and as I have actually done some ketubot for people (which is an incredible honor for me), it seems to fit. So I started there.
Information on Khazar naming practices is…sketchy…at best. History in this area of the world is very poorly documented for the period, so there is a lot of conjecture about specific details. There is evidence of Turkic names being used (Brooks, Jews of Khazaria), as well as traditional Jewish naming practices (Blank ben Blank). But I also found in my research that the Khazars appeared not to just be made up of Turkic tribes, but also many Slavic tribes in the area – in fact it was thought that Kiev was founded by Polian Slavs under Khazar rule. And the idea of a Slavic Khazar intruiged me.
So I started looking at Slavic naming practices. I knew I wanted to keep Avram, because well, that’s what I’m known as a frankly, I like the name. Avram also is a usable and document able Jewish name in both Spanish and Russian areas, so is an easy name to work with. In Russian, a common vocative naming practice going back to pretty much to the Dark Ages is to add -ov to a person’s job. So my first foray into a name was to look at Avram Soferov. Loved the ring to this, and it fit the vocation perfectly. I did some research and though I found usage in period; it turned out though, after speaking with some very knowledgeable people and buying some big. heavy books, the usage of Soferov was post-period. back to the drawing board.
Ok, something to do with scribal. Illumination. Calligraphy. Writing. Writer is Russian is “Pisov“. Bleah. You have to run any name through the 6-year old filter, and that one just doesn’t fly to me… (Avram Pissoff comes immediately to mind). However, in my digging I found the name Osvetoslav as a first name, easily document able, and within 80 years of the period (and location) of where I’m looking! Hmm. Now here is where my Russian language comes in. “To illuminate” is osvechat (освецать). This word, like in English, has a double meaning, both to elucidate, and to make brighter, such as with a manuscript. I kind of like that. So suddenly my name actually has kind of a meaning, if I can use that, but it’s a first name. Lucky, the Slavs liked to name their sons after their parents. Avram, son of Osvetoslav, that is Avram syn Osvetoslavov, or in early period, Avram syn Osvetoslavl’, became a real possibility. And to me, the name carried not only a tradition from my previous name, but also an in joke for my “profession”.
But even more so, it was a sign to me that this was really the right path. Moving to my new persona was an “enlightenment” to me. It illuminated a new path in the SCA for me, and I love how my new name reflects part of that, my osvechaya (elucidation) of my new research path.
Musings from Kiev 