ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1602 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1602 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 28 Mar 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 15th and 16th century Scottish woman. This brief letter is an answer to your question. >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. is a Scots name, a pet form of . We've found examples of it in Scots records spelled , , , and [1, 2]. is the genitive (possessive) form an early medieval Gaelic man's name, [3]. It was in common use in Scottish Gaelic in your period, when it was written [4]. A Gaelic woman of your period whose father's name was would have been identified by the patronymic byname "daughter of Domhnall". In your period, was pronounced \NEE-yen DON-il\. The name you asked about consists of one Scots element and one Gaelic element. We have found no examples of that sort of mixing of languages in late-period Scottish names. A woman in Gaelic society might sometimes be known by a Scots equivalent of her name, but it would be an entirely Scots form, not a Scots/Gaelic mixture. For example, a Highland woman named might be known in a Scots context as , using the Scots equivalent of her given name and a transliteration of her patronymic. If her name were written down, it would certainly have been in a Scots form: Gaelic was very rarely used as a written language in Scotland in our period. Because few period Scottish Gaelic written records exist, and because women are always under-represented in period documents, we know of only a few period Scottish Gaelic women's names. You can find our list on the web: http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/scotgaelfem/ Here are the names beginning with , which we thought might interest you most. Each one is followed by a pronunciation and some explanatory notes [5]. The slash in the names represents an accent on the preceding letter. In the pronunciations, the character \#\ represents a vowel that doesn't occur in English. It's similar to the one in . More precisely, you can pronounce it by positioning your mouth for the vowel in and then saying the vowel in . Mairghre/ad \MAR-aid\ Gaelic form of Maol-Mhuire \M#L VUR-reh\ recorded as Molmoria before 1476 Marsaili \MAR-se-lee\ recorded as Marcella 1465, Marsle 1527 Muirgheal \M#R-eel\ recorded as Muriella 1284 A great many more Gaelic names are recorded in Ireland. We don't know for certain that these names were also used in Scotland, but it is not unlikely: Gaelic was spoken in both countries in our period, and there was considerable commerece between them. Here are a few of the more common Irish women's names beginning with [3]. Mea/dhbh \MEHV\ Mo/irne \MORE-nyeh\ Mo/r \MORE\ Muireann \MEER-ahn\ A name like would be an excellent choice for a Highland woman of your period. If you prefer to keep the given name , then we recommend you choose a Lowland, Scots surname to go with it. Scots surnames were very similar in form to contemporary English surnames. Many were originally derived from place names, many more on men's given names, but by your period your surname would probably have been inherited from your father, in the modern style: the daughter of would have been called [4]. You might try to find a copy of George Black's _The Surnames of Scotland_ [4], which contains a very large collection of dated examples of Scottish surnames. If you avoid the names that start with , and pick a name that's dated in your period, you'll likely have a good choice. Or, if you can tell us what sort of Scots surname you want (meaning, sound, etc.), we can send you a list of possibilities. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Talan Gwynek and Effrick neyn Kenneoch assisted me in preparing this brief letter. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 28 March 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Talan Gwynek, "A List of Feminine Personal Names found in Scottish Records" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/scottishfem/ [2] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Early 16th Century Scottish Town Women's Names" (WWW: Privately pubished, 26 Oct 1996). http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/scottownwomen16.html [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [4] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. MacDonald, Robbie, Bogtown. [5] Arval Benicoeur, "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/arval/scotgaelfem/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in 'n', like , the letters 'D' and 'T' do not lenite.