ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1081 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1081 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 13 Jul 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about the feminine name <Ronnait>, which you'd like to use as a 13th to 16th century Irish name. You also wrote that you'd like a byname that is a precursor to your surname <Mitchell>. Here is what we have found. <Ro/nait> or <Ro/nnait> is indeed an Irish feminine name. It was definitely in use in the early medieval period [1, 4]. We don't have later-period example, but it is possible that it remained in use. The name is pronounced \RONE-itch\. The slash in the name represents an accent on the <o>. You are correct that the Irish surname <Mitchell> derived from the Gaelic <O/ Maoilmhichil>. That name was apparently particularly common in Connacht [2, 3]. In your period, clan names were indeed used as part of individual names. A woman named <Ro/nnait> who was a member of the <O/ Maoilmhichil> clan could have been known as <Ro/nnait inghean ui/ Mhaoilmhichil>, which literally means "Ro/nnait, daughter of [a man called] O/ Maoilmhichil". The changes in spelling of <O/ Maoilmhichil> to <ui/ Mhaoilmhichil> are grammatical requirements in Gaelic. Through most of your period, this name would have been pronounced \RONE-itch IN-yen ee vull-VICH-il\, where \vull\ rhymes with <pull> and \CH\ represents the soft, rasping <ch> sound in the German word <ich>. At the end of your period, the pronunciation would have been \RONE-itch nee vull-VICH-il\. You'll will notice here that the phrase <inghean ui/> is pronounced \nee\, like the modern Irish word <ni/>. In fact, <ni/> originated as a contraction of <inghean ui/>, but not until after 1600. In your period, many records in Ireland were kept in English; so if you name were written down, it might have been written in English as well as in Gaelic. <Ro/nnait> could have appeared in English as <Ronat>. <O/ Maoilmhichil> appears in English records c.1600 in the forms <O Mulmichell>, <O Mulvihill>, and <O Mulveill> [3]. So your name might have been written by a 16th century English scribe as <Ronat ny Mulmichell> or <Ronat ny Mulvihill>. I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 13 Jul 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Ro/nait. [2] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3). [3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). [4] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976), 153 a 27: Ro/nnait, a daughter of Ro/na/n Rathmar mac O/engusa. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Arval, 25 June 2001: Added note [4] and added the headword to note [1].