by Amanda Martel

The Writing Schoolemaster, published in London in 1590 by Peter Bales, consists of three books. The second, The Order of Orthographie, concerns itself with how to write “truly” in English. That is to say, how to spell things properly. The other two books in the work, each much shorter, are The Arte of Brachygraphie, which is a manual on how to “write as fast as a man speaketh” and includes a guide on an early form of shorthand, and The Key of Calygraphie, which is a guide on the basic techniques of writing such as how to hold a pen and how to sit to write.

Most of the pages in the work are taken up by a list of words in their correct spellings, but he also provides us with the following:

I have also made a Table of the Christian or proper names of men and women, such as are most common in use : which you maie also use when you shall doubt in the true writing of anie of them.”

I present below the text of this lovely little resource, formatted as I found it on those two pages, in tables. Spellings are exactly as presented in the text, except that I have used the standard modern s in place of the long s, for readability and searchability.

Many of the names presented here are fairly typical, while others seem to have a more classical bent to them. As to whether they were “commonly used” by people as their own names, or by people discussing the classics as was so popular in the Renaissance, is left unstated. All that Bales tells us is that they are in common use.

No gender is given for each of the names, as the information is presented in a context of “when you hear this name, here is how it is truly written”.

It’s a somewhat rare treat to have the names presented in the period source much as they would be in any name research article that we strive to produce, so I found that I just had to share it with the community. I found this source while researching a somewhat related project, and though The Writing Schoolemaster was of no real benefit there, it is at least bearing some fruit.

The Table of the Christen or proper names of men and women now commonlie vsed.

M Mabel. Magdalen. Marie. Marian. Margaret. Margerie. Marke. Marmaduke. Martin. Mathew. Mathie. Michael. Mildred. Millisainct. N Nathaniel. Nicholas. O Oliuer. Oswold. Owin.

P Parnell. Paule. Penelope. Perciuall. Persida. Peter. Petronilla. Philip. Prudence. Prisilla. Q Quintilian. R Rachael. Randolph. Raph. Reinald, or Reignald. Rice. Richard. Robert.

Roger. Rose. Rowland. S Salomon. Sampson. Samuel. Sara. Sebastian. Simon. Steuen. Susanna. T Timothie. Titus. Theodor. Theophilus. Tertullian. Tobias. Thomas. Thomasine. Tristram.

V Valentine. Vincent. Virginea. Vrsula. W Walter. Wenifrid. William. Wilfrid. Wolstan. X Xenophon. Z Zacharie. Zacheus.

Source

The Writing Schoolemaster: Conteining three Bookes in one; The first, teaching Swift writing; The second, True writing; The third, Faire writing.
Peter Bales, 1590. Published in facsimile as part of The English Experience from Da Capo Press (no. 194).