Message: "Use of LOYET in France or elsewhere?"

Use of LOYET in France or elsewhere?

by Andy ;---) (guest)

6/8/2006, 7:20 AM

St Lothair founded a monestary which was later called St-Loyet - obviously after its founder. Now is LOYET as a variant of Lothair / Lothar used as a given name in France or anywhere else?

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- Anneza +1

6/8/2006, 11:32 PM

In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer makes his Prioress a very genteel, uber-ladylike person. Unconvincingly refined! And "her grettest ooth was 'By Seynt Loy'" ... who is always glossed as a remarkably respectable saint, but not explained any further. The Prioress was proud of her French and spoke through her nose diligently, though her pronunciation showed that she had learnt French in the East End of London and had never been to France; however, she did seem to cotton on to a genuinely French saint!

If it is true, and not just true for Chaucer, that St Loy has the reputation of being, shall we say, wishy-washy, that could account for reluctance on the part of parents to use his name, perhaps?

- Andy ;---) (guest)

6/10/2006, 1:20 AM

Thank you for elaborate answer!
St-Loy however does not seem to be the same as St-Loyer. According to some sites LOY is the French equivalent of EULOGIUS.

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans) +1

6/8/2006, 8:25 AM

Loyet is not listed in Besnard & Desplanques's La cote des prenoms en 2004, which probably means that if the name exists in France today it is rare, with fewer than ten children born in the entire country receiving the name every year.

This message was edited 6/8/2006, 8:25 AM

- Andy ;---) (guest)

6/8/2006, 9:44 AM

Thank you for the information!
This is interesting, as "St-Loyer" gives you 10,000 hits at Google and you only get about 10 for "St-Lothaire". So the saint's name would still be Loyer whereas the given name used nowadays is Lothaire. I wonder why this is.

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