ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1018 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1018 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: 5 Jun 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us about a Gaelic name for an Irish woman in the 10th to 16th centuries. Specifically, you wanted to know about the names and , and wanted a correct patronymic based on your father's name . , pronounced \MAHKH-a\, is one of the three war-goddesses of the Tuatha De/ Danann, and is therefore a mythical name. However, we found some evidence that the name might have been used by a queen in the third century BCE, and found mention of a St. Macha, patroness of Killiney [1]. This suggests that the name may have been used in the 6th c. or so, but this is not well supported. would be a much better choice. It was a very popular Irish feminine name early in our period (before 1200). The name was used by a number of women in Irish mythology and history; we found a specific example in 831. A later version of the name is . [1,2] You were very close with your spelling of your father's name. The spelling was used early, and later. To turn this into a patronymic byname, the correct form would be (early) or (later). To summarize, we recommend as an early Irish spelling (before 1200), or as a later spelling. The early form would have been pronounced something like \MOOR^-@n EEN-y@n CHAIR-bh@l^\ and the later form something like \MEER-(y)@n EEN-y@n CHAR-bh@l^\, where \R^\ represents a palatalized , \@\ is the sound of in or , \CH\ is the sound of in German , \bh\ is sound of or in Spanish 'wolf' and 'grape', and \l^\ is a palatalized , the sound of in the French word 'million' and Italian 'of the'. The given names can be approximated as \MOOR-(y)@n\ and \MEER-(y)@n\, where the \(y)\ is consonantal and very lightly pronounced. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicouer, and Charles O'Connor contributed to this letter. In service, --Walraven van Nijmegen Academy of S. Gabriel [1] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990) [2] M.A. O'Brien (ed.), _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976) [3] Patrick Woulfe, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation) ---------- Correction by Aryanhwy, 10 Aug 2007: Corrected pronunciations.