ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3000 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3000 ************************************ 6 Mar 2005 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know how an Irish woman named or would have had her name recorded in English in the late 16th century. Here is the information we have found. We have very few examples of Gaelic women's bynames recorded in English, and so we are extrapolating from examples of masculine bynames. The masculine byname is found in English records from the time of Elizabeth I and James I as . The variant form of the byname, , is found in records from the same period as . [1] While we did not find examples of in English, the clan byname is found in late 16th century/early 17th century English as , , and . [1] (Here the slash represents an acute accent over the previous letter). In other English records from your period, is recorded as , , or . [2,3] Substituting any of these for or in the English spellings just listed will result in a plausible English form of the feminine byname, e.g. or . We did not find any examples of recorded in English in your period. In the 19th century, the name was anglicized or [4]. may have been associated with as early as the 16th century, but we cannot say for sure. We can speculate on possible anglicizations, based on how other names with these same sounds were rendered in English: [5] Soragha Soraghy Sorcha Sorgha Sorghy Suragha Suraghy Surcha Surgha Surghy We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 06 March 2005 -- References: [1] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.nn. Mac Maghnuis, Mac Maghnusa, O/ Maolruanaid. [2] _Annala Rioghachta Eireann: Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the Earliest period to the Year 1616_ edited from MSS. in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy and of Trinity College, Dublin with a translation by John O'Donovan, VII Volumes (Hodges, Smith, and Co: Dublin, 1854), vol. 6, pp. 2446 has in 1639 , , , and Shilie ny Teige> as daughters of , and in 1629 has , daughter of , and , daughter of . [3] Ewen, C. L'Estrange, _A History of Surnames of the British Isles_ (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1931; Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1968). pp. 210-211 has, from 1603-1604: Evelin ne Morishe, spinster Marie ny Dowda, widow Honor nyn Donnell McSwiny of Mossanglassy Onore nyn Dermot O'Rian More Voy of Tolleraght, spinster [4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Sorcha [5] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). The spellings before the colons are the headers, and the spellings after are the late-16th, early-17th century English forms. : : , : : , : , : , : : : , : , : , , : : : , : , : : , : , , , , : , : : : , , : , , : , , The first group shows that Irish final <-a> was often perceived as something like \ee\. The second shows that Irish was often perceived as something more like the of English . The third shows that Irish was rather often represented by English . And the fourth shows that an epenthetic vowel was often inserted between \r\ and \kh\. And epenthetic vowel is a vowel, in this context \@\ (the sound of in or ), inserted to break up awkward sequences of consonants.