ISHR Seminar – Prof Steve Boardman
The next ISHR seminar will take place on Thursday 23 February when Steve Boardman, Professor in Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh, and ISHR Visiting Scholar during this academic year, will present ‘Bucktooth, Earl Beardie, and the Black Knight: Names and by-names in late medieval Scotland.’
Steve’s paper examines naming patterns within the late medieval Scottish nobility. The first part of the paper looks at baptismal names and, while acknowledging the deep conservatism that determined name choice in general, attempts to trace and explain the growing popularity of ‘new’ names such as George, Ninian and Duthac. In the second half of the paper the focus is on the positive or condemnatory nicknames or bynames earned by, or imposed on, particular noblemen and what these appellations might tell us about the political, social and cultural world of the late medieval Scottish aristocracy.
The seminar will be held in the New Seminar Room, St John’s House, 71 South Street, St Andrews at 5.30pm. Drinks and nibbles will be served from 5.15pm.