ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2306 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2306 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 1 Jun 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if <Cassandra Maguire> would be an appropriate name for an English woman of Irish heritage living in the 15th or 16th century. You also asked for our evaluation of your arms, which we would blazon, "Per pale azure and vert, four dragonflies in cross bendwise sinister argent." Here is the information we have found. <Cassandra> was originally the name of a Greek mythological figure, but it was used in various forms in England beginning in the 12th century [1]. We have found no evidence that any form of <Cassandra> was used by other cultures in the medieval period. We can attribute the resurgence of <Cassandra> in England to increased interest in tales of the Trojan War, in which the Greek prophetess <Cassandra> plays a role [2]. We found the spelling <Cassandra> in the 16th century [3, 4], so it is a fine choice for your given name. <Maguire> is a modern Anglicized form of the Gaelic byname <mag Uidhir> 'son of Uidhir' [5, 6]. Unfortunately, the name does not seem to have been carried from Ireland to England during your period; we have no record of any spelling of <Maguire>. In general, names beginning with <Mac-> or <Mag->, imported from Gaelic-speaking cultures, were rare in England for your period, and all but one of the examples we have originated in Scotland rather than Ireland [7, 8]. Since we have found no evidence that <Cassandra> was used in Ireland, we believe that the combination of names is highly implausible. Since you mentioned that <Cassandra> was more important to you that <Maguire>, we recommend that you choose another surname. If you want to use the name <Cassandra>, then we strongly recommend you choose an English surname, since England is the only place we've found that given name used in period. There are surnames similar in sound to <Maguire> documented in England which might appeal to you. We find the following [9]: Guy, 1597 Gwye, 1573 Mawger, Maugere, 1569 Maygor, 1561 Mager, 1577 If any of these names appeals to you and you are unsure how it is pronounced, please write us again. If expressing Irish heritage is especially important to you, you might want to consider the surname <Irish>; we find it as <Iryshe> in 1582. We also find the surname <Ireland> in 1598 [9]. If none of these surnames appeals to you, you will find more possibilities here: "Surnames in Durham and Northumberland, 1521-1615" http://www.yucs.org/~jules/names/parish/surnames.html These surnames are from the North of England, near the Scottish border; any surname listed would be appropriate for you. There's nothing much like <Maguire> there, but any one of them would be a good re-creation if combined with the given name <Cassandra>. Your arms, unfortunately, are not appropriate for your period. Dividing a field using blue and green, which do not contrast well with each other, is very unusual; we have no examples of a similar field from England in your period. Further, though the SCA has registered dragonflies in the past, we have found no depictions of dragonflies in period armory, and accordingly we consider using them a very poor recreation. If you'd like to see the type of armory that was typical in England in your period, we recommend the following article: "An Elizabethan Armorial" http://renaissance.dm.net/heraldry/blazons.html If you find any ideas there that you would like to incorporate in your arms, please write us again. We hope that this letter has been useful, and that you will not hesitate to write again if you have any further questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Arval Benicoeur, Blaise de Cormeilles, Julie Stampnitzky, Mari neyn Brian, Maridonna Benvenuti, Rouland Carre, Talan Gwynek, and Zenobia Naphtali. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 1 June 2001 ------------- References: [1] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/reaney/ [2] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.n. Cassandra. [3] Talan Gwynek, "Late Sixteenth Century English Given Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/eng16/ [4] "Marriages from the Grindon Registers (1565-1837)" (WWW: GENUKI, 1996). In 1595 <Lancelote Claxton> married <Cassandra Lamberte>. http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/Transcriptions/DUR/GRI.html [5] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. Mag Uidhir. Anglicized forms used in Ireland circa 1600 include <Maguier>, <M'Guier>, <M'Gwire>, and <M'Guiver>. We have not found any of these forms in England. [6] Ewen, C. L'Estrange, _A History of Surnames of the British Isles_ (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1931; Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1968), p. 210 has examples of women's names recorded in Ireland in Anglicized forms. Taken from the Patent Rolls of James I (1603-4), from the Calendar of Irish Patent Rolls: <Evelin ne Morishe>, <Marie ny Dowda>, <Honor nyn Donnell McSwiny>, and <Onore nyn Dermot O'Rian More Voy>. These names all preserve a form of the feminine <inghean> 'daughter' rather than the masculine <mac> 'son'. Based on these examples, we believe it is unlikely that your byname, which in Gaelic would be <inghean Uidhir>, would be recorded as <Maguire> even in Ireland. [7] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Macasgill, lists <Gilbert Mac Askill> recorded in Durham in the North of England in 1311. We periodically find <Mac-> names in the North of England, since there was a good deal of traffic across the Scottish border. [8] Talan Gwynek, "Late Sixteenth Century English Given Names". Data includes an entry for <Thadeus Mac Cartye>, of the city of Westminster. <Thaddeus> was later a common Anglicized form of Irish <Tadhg>, so it is likely that he was an Irishman named <Tadhg Mac Carthaig>. This is the only Irish name cited in England for your period we have found. In many cases English names were adopted as standard "translations" of Gaelic names, often because of common etymology like <John> for <Eoin> or because of similar sound like <Thaddeus> for <Tadhg>. However, we aren't aware that <Cassandra> was used as the English equivalent of any Gaelic name. [9] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.nn. Guy, Mauger, Major, Irish, Ireland. <Guy> and <Mauger> are both based on old French given names. <Major> may be related to the military rank. <Irish> and <Ireland> are from descriptive terms for people from Ireland. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 20 Sep 2001, Arval: <mag Uidhir> means "son of Odhar", not "son of Uidhir". <Uidhir> is the genitive form of <Odhar>, according to Woulfe.