ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1487 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1487 ************************************ 25 Jan 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about and as period Irish women's names. This letter is a brief answer to your question. appears to be a modern spelling a name that was used in the 11th century as and later in period as [1, 2]. In both spellings, it was pronounced \DAHR-@n\. The symbol \@\ is a schwa, the first sound in the word . We could not find in our references. It may be another modern spelling of , or it might be a modern form of . The slash represents an accent on the preceding letter. was the name of the mother of Saint Colma/n of Daire Mo/r and also appears in Irish legend. The name appears to have dropped out of use fairly early, so we only recommend this name for persona no later than the 10th century. It is pronounced \DIE-ree-n~@\ with the first syllable like the word , and the symbol \n~\ representing the sound of the in the Spanish word or the in the French . In our period, a woman in Irish Gaelic culture was known primarily as her father's daughter. For example, Doireann, daughter of Aodh, would have been called which simply means "Doireann daughter of Aodh". The word is pronounced \IN-yen\. You can find discussions of the construction of Gaelic women's names on the web: Early Irish Feminine Names From the Index To O'Brien's "Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae" http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ If you want to choose a name for your father, you can find a list of common Gaelic men's names at: 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 25 Jan 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. Da/irine, Doirend [2] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. Doireann.