ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2812 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2812 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 24 Jan 2004 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked if some name similar to is appropriate for a woman in 16th century Ireland. It is, but not quite in that form. Ireland in your period was home to a mixture of Gaelic and English cultures. Both languages were used in writing and speech, often by the same people. However, the naming customs of the two cultures were quite different; and when a woman's name was "translated" from one language to the other, it was often adapted, to some degree, to fit the naming customs of the second language. Thus, a 16th century Irish name could appear in several different forms depending on who was writing or speaking it, what language she was using at the time, how familiar she was with the language & customs of the other culture, and other factors. The surname , an anglicized form of a Gaelic clan surname, implies that you want a name suitable for a Gaelic woman. So the first step is to determine how her name would have appeared in Gaelic. was adopted into Gaelic in Ireland by the mid-14th century; it appears in 16th century records as , , , , , ; and in late 15th century records as [1]. The slash represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. Any of these spellings is appropriate, but the last is a particularly good choice: It is the normalized spelling. Gaelic spelling had fairly fixed rules, especially by the 16th century. A spelling that follows these rules is called a "normalized spelling", which can be thought of as the theoretically correct spelling according to the rules for the period under consideration rather than the most common spelling actually found. In all spellings, the name was pronounced roughly \kaht-a-REE-na\ or \kah-TREE-na\. In 16th century Gaelic, a woman was usually identified as her father's daughter. For example, Caitri/ona daughter of Se/amus O/ Ne/ill would usually have been identified literally as . (The changes to the spelling of the father's name as required by Gaelic grammar, and reflect changes in pronunciation. For details, see Quick and Easy Gaelic Names at http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/.) She might also have been called simply "Caitriona Se/amus' daughter"; and less frequently . This last name literally means "Caitriona O'Neill's daughter" but was understood to mean "Caitriona of the O'Neill clan". The word "daughter" was pronounced roughly \EEN-yen\; and was \ee N^AYL^\, where \N^\ is the sound of in , and \L^\ is the sound of in French 'million'. If you'd like to choose a given name for your father, we recommend you look for one recorded in the 16th century in the article that we've used as reference [1]. You may find it useful to start at this page: http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/ and then select the link for 1501-1600. Once you choose a name, we'll be happy to help you with the grammar & pronunciation. Having determined the Gaelic name of your 16th century Irishwoman, the next step is to consider how her name might have been recorded in English; and luckily we have data to answer that question for this particular name. English-language records from 14th century Ireland and Latin records from 16th century Ireland contain the name [2]. Contemporary records in England have , , Kateryn>, , , , and [3]. l6th and early 17th century Anglo- Irish records contain several forms of [2, 4]: o Nele Onele O Nele O neile Oneyle Neale O'Neile We have a 14th century example of an Irish Gaelic woman identified in English records as (the last word means "widow") [2], so , for example, is one way that Caitri/ona inghean She/amuis ui/ Ne/ill might have been identified in English. Another woman is mentioned in the same 14th century records as . Here, the surname is a phonetic rendering of another clan byname, [2]. Working from this model, we could construct as second way this Irishwoman might have been identified in English records. Please write again if you have further questions. I was assisted in writing this letter by Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Ursula Georges, and Mari neyn Bryan. Arval for the Academy 24 Jan 2004 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002), s.n. Caitriona http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/ [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century Irish Names and Naming Practices" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999). http://www.s- gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/lateirish/ [3] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/ [4] Ewen, C. L'Estrange, _A History of Surnames of the British Isles_ (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1931; Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1968). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 6 Jun 2004, Arval: Corrected spelling & pronunciation of . Correction, 10 September 2006, Aryanhwy: Corrected pronunciation of again.