ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1058 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1058 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: 7 Jul 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wrote to us inquiring about the name as a Scottish, or perhaps Irish, name. You were interested in the history and ancestry of this name, as well as documenting it for SCA use. The cultural and linguistic history of Scotland and Ireland are both rather complex. From the Middle Ages on, both countries were inhabited by several different cultures which used different languages and very different naming customs. In order to answer your question, we need to give you a bit of background on some of these cultures. Late medieval Scotland was inhabited by Norse speakers in the far north and Western Isles; English-speakers in the southeast; Gaels throughout much of the country; and Anglo-Normans settlers, mostly in the south. By the 14th century, the Norse had been mostly displaced and English and Anglo-Normans had merged and evolved into a language called Scots that was closely related to contemporary English. The country was largely divided between Gaels in the Highlands and Scots-speakers in the Lowlands, including the royal court and the towns. These two late-period cultures were distinct and used very different styles of naming. The Gaelic of the Highlands of Scotland was the same language used by Gaels in much of contemporary Ireland, though there were some differences in naming customs. Late-period Ireland was also home to English settlers and their Anglo-Irish descendents, who mostly used English-style names. is a modern English-language family name that derives from a Gaelic patronymic byname (i.e. a surname that identified a man as his father's son). This particular spelling is found in modern Ireland, along with and [2]. In Scotland, the same name appears most often as [3]. The root of all these names in the Gaelic given name or , which was the name of several early Irish saints [1]. Unfortunately, at this point the story gets complicated. The saints of this name all lived very early in the Middle Ages. The most important of them, for example, is Saint Columba or Columcille, who lived in the 6th century and was a missionary to Scotland [4]. We have found no evidence that the name was used after the 6th century, and there is reason to believe that it wasn't: In general, the Gaels tended to avoid naming their children after important saints, believing that those names were too holy for regular use. Instead they invoked the blessing of the saint on a child by using a compound name that meant "servant of" or "follower of" the saint. Two such masculine names were constructed from : , which was the source of the modern name ; and [3, 5, 6]. These two-word given names were not uncommon among the Gaels. The changes in spelling, to , are required by Gaelic grammar. In modern times, as part of a fashion for Gaelic culture, the names of many early Irish and Scottish saints were revived and came into common use. and its English-language variants , , etc., seem to be examples of this process. It was the masculine name that ultimately led to the modern surnames that we're discussing. The sons of a man named used the surname ; and in some families this became fixed as an inherited family or clan name. After about 1200, the spelling system used in Gaelic change in some ways; in later-period Ireland this name was written , while in Scotland it was . The difference between the Irish and Scottish forms reflect dialectal differences in pronunciation. English language records from Ireland around 1600 record this name in anglicized forms and . The second syllable, which wasn't very strongly pronounced, eventually dropped out in this and similar name; in Scotland the name was recorded by Scots-speaking scribes as in 1631, 1647 [3, 7]. These are our earliest examples of the contracted form, and an examination of similar names shows that at the end of our period, the syllable was still included (and thus, presumably, was still pronounced strongly enough to be important) at least in Ireland [8]. Thus, the Gaelic surname that corresponds to is in Ireland, in Scotland. In Scotland, such a surname would only have been used literally, i.e. a man would have been called in Gaelic only because his father's given name was . The custom of using one's clan name as a surname did not arise in Scotland until well after our period. Gaelic was rarely used as a written language in period Scotland; this name might have been recorded in Scots-language records at the end of our period as [9] or perhaps . In Ireland, a surname like could also have been used literally; but it could also indicate clan membership. Domhnall who was the son of Aodh of the Mac Giolla Choluim clan might have been called or simply . In English-language records in Ireland, this name would probably have been recorded something like . We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Please contact us once you pin down your persona if you would like help choosing a first name or for further information about names from period Ireland or Scotland. Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin assisted in preparing this letter. In service, --Walraven van Nijmegen Academy of S. Gabriel 7 Jul 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Columb. [2] Edward MacLysaght, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985) s.nn. MacCallum, MacColum. [3] George F. Black, _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_ (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986) s.n. MacCallum. [4] "Columba, Saint", The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition (WWW: Columbia University Press, 2004). http://www.bartleby.com/65/co/Columba.html [5] O/ Corra/in and Maguire, s.n. Ma/el Coluim. [6] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002), s.nn. Ma/el Coluim, Gilla Coluim http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/MaelColuim.shtml http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/GillaColuim.shtml [7] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.nn. Mac Giolla Colm, Mac Coluim. [8] Woulfe, pp.366-81. [9] Compare 1579, in Black s.n. Macilvora. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Arval, 29 Jan 2005. The original discussion of was misleading and has been completely rewritten. Here is the original version: The name was originally a patronymic byname meaning "son of Colum", and for our period this is the meaning it would have carried, so your father would be named . The name was rather common, and we found several spellings [1]: , later , , , As used in a patronymic byname, we found the English spelling from the Irish Gaelic [2]. The 'i' added to the name is the result of Gaelic grammar. We found evidence that this name was also used in late-period Scotland [3].