ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1460 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1460 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: 22 Feb 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us about a name for a late 13th century Scottish woman, specifically about as a possibility. Since you indicated that you had read Scottish Names 101, we'll begin by reminding you that there was not a single uniform culture in period Scotland. From the late 14th century onward, there were two main languages spoken in Scotland: Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands, and Scots, spoken in the Lowlands, including the royal court and towns. Gaelic is the same language spoken in Ireland at this time; Scots is closely related to contemporary English. Names were formed quite differently in the two languages, and the two styles of naming did not mix. Therefore, the culture you choose for your persona will determine how your name should be constructed. We didn't find as a Gaelic name; we think it might be a modern spelling of the feminine name or . That name is pronounced \K#L-in\ or \K#L-uhn\ [2]. The symbol \#\ represents a vowel not found in English, but somewhat similar to the in . You can produce an approximation by saying the vowel in without rounding your lips at all; that is, position your lips to say , but say . This name has been anglicized as [3]. The spelling would have been used after 1200 or so; earlier it would have been , where the slash represents an accent on the 'a'. We did not find any other period woman's name pronounced \KAY-lin\ or \KEE-lin\. You mentioned that you found the name on the website http://www.hylit.com/info/Names/IrishGIRLSnames.html This site is not a suitable source for Society names. It is a name-your-baby site, with no pretension to being a source for historical information. It gives no dates or sources, mixes Gaelic and English spellings without identifying them, and contains many modern names that were not used in our period. If you are interested in looking at additional Gaelic women's names, you might browse the following pages: "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/scotgaelfem/ "Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_" (a collection of Irish women's names) http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html The name is a modern Irish surname, a contracted English form of the Gaelic family name or [5]. We didn't find it in our Scottish sources, and in any case this modern English form would not have been used in Gaelic in our period. We did find the modern Scottish surname , which is an English form of [4], and which means "son of Brana/n". In Gaelic in our period, such a name was only used literally: A man surnamed would have been the son of a man whose given name was . It was also custom that women were known as their father's daughters. For example, a woman named who was the daughter of would be known as , or "Caoilfhionn, daughter of Brana/n". The name of the father changes spelling because it is in the genitive (possessive) case, and because of "lenition", a feature of Gaelic grammar. If you would like a fuller explanation of how Gaelic names were constructed in period, read: "Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames". http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ The name , pronounced roughly \K#L-inn IN-yen VRAHN-ahn^\, where \n^\ stands for the sound of in French 'mountain', would be a reasonable name for a Scottish Gaelic woman of your period. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, and Effrick neyn Kenneock contributed to this letter. In service, --Walraven van Nijmegen Academy of S. Gabriel [1] Skene, William F., "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 1. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, with a Translation,", pp 50-62, and "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 2. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, continued," pp. 357-60, _Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis consisting of Original Papers and Documents Relating to the History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, ed. The Iona Club (Edinburgh: Thomas G. Stevenson, 1847). [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Irish Names for Children_ (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1974). [4] George F. Black, _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_ (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986) s.n. MacBrenyn. [5] Edward MacLysaght, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985) s.n. (O) Brennan. ---- Correction by Aryanhwy 10 June 2006 Corrected pronunciation of .