ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1767 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1767 ************************************ 16 Jul 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether or is an appropriate name for a 13th or 14th century Scottish woman. Here is what we have found. Several languages were spoken in Scotland in the 13th century: * Norse, spoken in the far north and the western isles. * English, spoken mainly in the southeast. * Gaelic, spoken through much of the country. * Norman French, spoken by Norman settlers and their Scoto-Norman descendents, mostly in the south. By the 14th century, English and Norman French evolved into Scots, which was spoken in the Lowlands. Gaelic remained the language of the Highlands. In our period, the same Gaelic was spoken in Scotland and Ireland. These various languages were distinct and each culture had its own styles of name formation. What type of name is appropriate for you depends on what culture you want to fit. Most of the elements of your name are Gaelic, so we've assumed you want a Scottish Gaelic name. appears to be a modern variant spelling of , the period Gaelic form of , which is pronounced \MAR-@\. \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the 'a' in . We have found no evidence that this name was used in period Gaelic culture in either Scotland or Ireland. In general, unlike the English and most continental cultures, the Gaels of our period did not name their children after important saints. These names were considered to be too holy for normal use. Instead, children were often named "servant of" or "devotee of" a saint. For example, "devotee of Mary", was a reasonably common woman's name in Ireland and we have found examples of it in Gaelic Scotland [1, 2]. It was pronounced roughly \MULL VUR-@\, where \MULL\ rhymes with . is pronounced \V\ in Gaelic. Under the rules of Gaelic grammar, the initial in a name sometimes softens to in a phrase; but never in a given name. There's a similar-sounding Gaelic name that might interest you. , a Gaelic form of , was pronounced \MAR-ait\. It was popularized by St. Margaret of Scotland, so it is likely it was used in Scottish Gaelic [1]. If you particularly want to use a form of in a Scottish name, you might consider moving your persona to the Lowlands and choosing a Scots name rather than a Gaelic name. , , and other forms of the name are recorded in the 13th and 14th centuries [4]. If this possibility interests you, write us again and we'll suggest some sources for appropriate surnames. If you'd like to consider a different name, we have two lists that may help you. We have found only a few examples of Gaelic women's names in Scotland: Nearly all records in Scotland were written in Latin or Scots, and women are always underrepresented in period documents. The few we have found are listed in reference [2]. A longer list of early Gaelic women's names from Ireland is on the web: Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae' http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/obrien/ Many of these names were probably also used in Scotland. If you pick a few, we can offer an opinion on which were most likely found in Scotland. is a modern American name derived from , the name of a character in medieval Welsh literature. We have studied this name in some detail, and we have found no evidence that it was used outside of literature until the 19th century. The <-wynn> spelling, in particular, is impossible for period Welsh: <-wyn> appears only in masculine Welsh names. You can read the full details on the web: Concerning the Names Branwen, Bronwen and the Like http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/problemnames/branwen.html Note that even if the name had been used in period, it would not have been used in an otherwise-Gaelic name. Gaelic and Welsh were distinct languages in our period, and used incompatible spelling systems. While some names were adopted from one language to the other, their spellings changed substantially when it happened. We should also point out that middle names were not used in Gaelic until well after our period. A Gaelic woman of your period would have had only one given name. is a modern English spelling of the Gaelic name , which was used in Scotland in your period [3]. This name literally means "son of Aodh", and that's the only way it was used in period: to identify a man as his father's son. The practice of using names like to identify clan membership is a modern development. There were certainly clans in period Scottish Gaelic culture, but clan membership was not indicated in individuals' names. That contrasts with Ireland, where a female member of clan could have been known as "daughter of O/ hAoidh". This style of naming did not exist in Scotland. A Scottish Gaelic woman was simply known as her father's daughter. If you want to call yourself "daughter of Aodh", then you should use . is the possessive (genitive) form of . This phrase was pronounced \IN-yen AY\. 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. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 16 Jul 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. Maire, Mairead. [2] Arval Benicoeur, "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/arval/scotgaelfem/ [3] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. MacKay. Black cites 1326, a.1329. The spelling appears in 1506, but appears to be modern. [4] Talan Gwynek, "A List of Feminine Personal Names found in Scottish Records" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/scottishfem/