ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2250 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2250 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 09 Mar 2001 From: Judith Phillips Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us whether would be an appropriate Irish name for the period 1330-1370. Here is the information we found. was the name of several early Irish saints. Despite this, it never became common and does not seem to have been used at all in the later medieval period [1]. We haven't found the name used after 1061 [6]. However, the masculine given names and , "devotee of Ciaran" and "servant of Ciaran", were used much later than itself. It was a common Gaelic naming practice to create new given names in this fashion when the actual name of a saint was considered too holy for ordinary people to use. We found the following dated forms of and : Mael Ciaran 1060 [2] Gilla Ciaran 1095 [2] Maelciaran 1249, 1263 [3] While none of these examples is from your period, we believe it is plausible that and would still have been used in the 14th century. At that time, the standard spelling of would have been , pronounced \MEL CHEE-@-rahn~\. (The notation \CH\ represents the soft sound in German , \@\ is the sound of in or , and \n~\ is the sound of in French or Italian or the sound in Spanish .) would have been spelled and pronounced \GIL-l@ CHEE-@-rahn~\. is a Gaelic word meaning "the Welshman." It is also written . (The dots over the and , represented by and , indicate lenition, a softening of the sounds of these letters. Lenition was also indicated by inserting an after the letter in question; we most often use the latter convention.) was a descriptive byname typically applied to Welshmen who accompanied the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. At some point it became an inherited surname which is the basis for the modern surname [4]. We found the name spelled in 1208 and in 1515 [5]; was the standard later-period spelling and is probably the most appropriate for your period. It was pronounced \BREH-n@kh\, where \kh\ represents the harsh, rasping sound of in Scottish or German . is a fine byname for your period, with one caveat: we aren't sure whether it would have been used by anyone with a Gaelic given name. Certainly began to be used with Gaelic names at some point, since it eventually became an inherited surname. However, we aren't sure whether this had occurred by the 14th century. In your period, might still have been a literal byname, applied only to a bona fide Welshman or to someone with recent Welsh ancestry. We hope that this letter has been useful to you. Please feel free to contact us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have any further questions. I was assisted in writing this letter by Adelaide de Beaumont, Mari neyn Brian, Arval Benicoeur, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Talan Gwynek, Juliana de Luna, Julie Stampnitzky, and Teceangl Bach. For the Academy, Adeliza de Saviniaco 9 March 2001 ----------------------------------------- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.n. Ciaran. [2] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997) U1060.5, U1090.5 http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/ [3] Cournane, Mavis, Vibeke Dijkman, and Ivonne Tummers, "Annals of Connacht" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997) 1249.16, 1263.11 http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100011 [4] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3). s.n. Brannagh. [5] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters", six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98) v. 3 M1208.1, v. 5 M1515.8. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005C (v.3) http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005E (v.5) [6] The examples of are: M919.2 Ciaran, epscop Tolain M951.1 Ciaran ua Gabhla, espucc Cluana Fe_rta Bre/nainn U1061.1 Ciaran sui ecnaidh Erenn Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997). http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/ Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters, vol. 2", six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98), entries M903-M1171. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005B - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 10 Dec 2002, Arval: Added note [6].