ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1004 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1004 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: 29 Jun 1998 Greetings, Here is the information we found on , which your daughter wanted to use as a 16th-century Scottish Gaelic name. is the Gaelic name of a fictional heroine of "The Sons of Uisneach", a medieval Irish legend. It is pronounced roughly \DEHR-dreh\. We have only one example of a real person who used the name--that example is from Scotland in 1166, where it was recorded in the Scots spelling , representing the same pronunciation. became popular in Ireland during the Celtic revival of the early 20th century, but was apparently not used before then. (1) For more information about the history of the name , please see http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/problem_names/deirdre.html wasn't nearly as common in the Middle Ages as it is today, but we do know that it was used in medieval Scotland--and far be it from us to argue with a 5-year-old! Assuming that your daughter doesn't want to look for a more common name, she could use , which in your period is pronounced \DEHR-dreh NEE-yen ANE vick GHOHN-all\. Note that we changed the spelling to . (2) In Gaelic, is pronounced like the English \v\, but Gaelic itself doesn't use a written . This name means "Deirdre, daughter of Eoin, who is the son of Domhnall." We note that your own name is . If both those names are correct, then your father's name is Domhnall and your paternal grandfather is Eoin. Your husband is also named Eoin, and his father (your father-in-law) is also named Domhnall. If this isn't what you intend, then your daughter's name may not be correct. Scottish patronymics named a single line of descent; there is no way for a name to say "Deirdre, daughter of Eoin and of Domhnall's daughter." Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Walraven van Nijmege contributed to this letter. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. In service, Alan Fairfax Academy of S. Gabriel (1) Mittleman, Josh. "Concerning the Name Deirdre." WWW: Accessed 6/10/98. http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/problem_names/deirdre.html (2) Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in 'n', like , the letter 'D' does not lenite.