Juliana de Luna

(Julia Smith)

About Me

In the Society for Creative Anachronism, I am known as Juliana de Luna. Mundanely, I'm Julia Smith, and teach anthropology at a minor university in the Pacific Northwest. I do research in Latin America, which explains my interest in things Iberian (referring to the part of Europe where modern Spain and Portugal are located).

I got interested in heraldry while I was in Costa Rica in 1997-8. Charles O'Connor started sending me questions from the Academy of Saint Gabriel, a then relatively new e-mail consulting group that helps people find authentic names. I found myself doing research, and as soon as I got back I became a member of the Academy. Then I got dragged into doing a variety of projects for the College of Arms (the official folks who make decisions about names and armory for the Society).

Doña Juliana de Luna is a sixteenth century Spanish courtier, with a small income derived from her father's encomienda in Mexico (he was a conquistador). A woman with my small scholarly gifts entertains (or perhaps amuses) people enough to stay at court. I am quite the humanist, and want (like Emilia Pia) to have readings from The Courtier on my deathbed rather than readings from the Bible. I am a minor descendant of the prominent de Luna family, and thus bear a (greatly) differenced version of the de Luna arms. My arms, Gules, six crescents inverted two, two, and two checky argent and sable (red field, six crescents points down colored with checks of white and black,) are derived from the de Luna arms (which have a single white crescent inverted and a white base); all the odd things about it are typical of Spanish arms.

My Name Articles

Heraldic Titles

• Heraldic Titles from the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Order Names

• Medieval Secular Order Names

Spanish Names

• Medieval Spanish Jewish Names of the 13th and 14th Centuries
• Spanish Names from the Late 15th Century

Names from Arab Spain and other Arabic Speaking Areas

• "Son of the Hot-Tempered Woman": Women's Names in Arabic Bynames
• Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain
• Arabs in Spain: Names from al-Andalus
• Jewish Women's Names in an Arab Context: Names from the Geniza of Cairo

Other Iberian Names (Portguese, Catalan, etc.)

• Catalan Names in Latin Contexts: the late 12th century
• Early Portuguese Names
• Jews in Catalonia: 1250 to 1400
• Portuguese Names 1350-1450
• Portuguese Names from the 16th Century

English Names

• Compound Placenames in English
• Names of English Colleges (with Mari ingen Briain meic Donnchada)

French Names

• A Handful of 12th Century Gascon Names
• Occitan Townspeople in the 14th Century
• Inn Signs and House Names in 15th Century Paris

Italian Names

• Masculine Names from Thirteenth Century Pisa
• Names in 15th Century Florence and her Dominions: the Condado
• Names from Sixteenth Century Venice
• Late Period Italian Women's Names
• Occupations from Renaissance Florence

Jewish Names (also listed under the language area)

• Jewish Women's Names in an Arab Context: Names from the Geniza of Cairo
• Jews in Catalonia: 1250 to 1400

Spanish New World Indigenous Peoples

• Names from the 1570 Census of Cozumel (with Mari ingen Briain meic Donnchada)

Medieval Scotland | Medieval Names Archive

Kathleen M. O'Brien's articles are hosted by Medieval Scotland, which is published by Sharon L. Krossa (contact).   Shopping online? How you can support this site. (Jan 2006)
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