ANS 2022, January 23, 2022

"Nicknames of ‘disability’ in early medieval England"
Tristan Alphey (St Cross College at the University of Oxford, UK)

Early medieval England is remarkable for a frequency and breadth of nicknames that appear in its written sources. While these have been philologically analysed, their socio-cultural implications have remained unclear. Within the broader corpus, there are a substantial number of nicknames that reflect ‘disability’, both physical and mental. By exploring the themes and application of these names we can begin to reconstruct previously unclear historical social system from limited literary sources: this is one of the advantages of an explicitly ‘historical’ socio-onomastics.
For one, a reconstruction of contemporary conceptualisation of ‘disability’ is possible, by examining the vocabulary usage attached to individuals. What terminology was freely applied to people, and what was avoided? Did a contemporary distinction between ‘disability’ and impairment exist? Do certain contexts (eg. ecclesiastical versus secular) reflect in different attitudes towards certain impairments?

A specific focus on nicknames of ‘disability’ also facilitates asking broader questions about the practical role of nicknames in constructing and guiding social interactions. Are ‘disability’ nicknames designed to exclude and marginalise individuals, tying them to narratives of religious deviance? Instead, do they recognize past narratives for individuals creating them a personal mythology, both positive and negative?

Studying early medieval English nicknames of ‘disability’ is, therefore, a valuable case-study for the benefits of an explicitly historical socio-onomastics. It provides both an in-depth insight into how a past culture understood the social construction of ‘disability’, and the practical terms with which nicknames helped establish the social realities of these ideas.

Tristan Alphey is a DPhil student reading history at St Cross College at the University of Oxford. His research explores the socio-cultural impacts of nicknaming in early medieval England and its role in establishing social norms and group identities.

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