ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1082
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1082
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From: 
29 Jul 1998

Greetings,

Here's the advice we can give you about a name for a fictional
character who is trying to develop a Norse-Gaelic persona from
Caithness who was born in 1296.

This is undoubtedly the most interesting question we've gotten.  Your
character's persona story is very similar to many that we've encountered 
in the SCA--basically an attempt to throw in a lot of cool cultures, a
lot of drama and tragedy, and provide explanations of why the character 
would act like a fantasy hero rather than a member of their own culture.
I would not be surprised to meet someone who told me your persona's
story just as you've recited it to us. (1)

There are several historical problems with your persona's story.
First, it's not at all clear that anyone identified themselves as
being "Norse/Gaelic" as modern Americans might.  Even in areas where
Gaelic people interacted with Norse people, it is more likely that
individual settlements remained fairly homogenous.  Second, nobody was
called a "British soldier" in 1296.  "Britain" is the name of the
whole island, and "British" wasn't used to designate a nationality
until England and Scotland were unified into the Kingdom of Great
Britain in 1707.  In any case, English soldiers (like the bad guys in
"Braveheart") never made it anywhere near Caithness in the 13th century;
the English army never made it farther north than Elgin, in Moray,
during that period.

But even if you substitute "sheep stealer" for "British soldier," the
whole story is particularly unlikely because infants didn't "raise
themselves."  Even in today's fairly congenial world, infants need
parents.  It is safe to say that an infant in 13th-century Caithness
would never have survived unless she was taken in by another family.
If she had been raised by an uncle from an early age, she would most
likely have had a fairly normal life, one that would not have involved
becoming some kind of Celtic Xena.

The problem is that it's impossible to prove a negative in history.
There was enough misfortune in the 13th century that orphaned babies
were not uncommon, and yet we don't have a single account of a young
girl learning the ways of war and becoming a mighty defender of the
weak.  However, it is not absolutely impossible that someone later
found all the records of female warriors and burned them, so that we
don't have them--just as it's not absolutely impossible that the US
Government is using the Federal Emergency Management Association to
take over alien landing sites in north Texas.  In both cases,
enthusiastic people seize on the bits of evidence they can find to
support ideas they like and ignore the more reasonable conclusion.

Given all that background, we're still not entirely sure what to
suggest as far as an actual name is concerned.  I suspect that your
character would be likely to find a historically accurate name but
keep to her basically impossible persona story.  If you want to go
with that, we can start doing some investigation.  You should be
aware, however, that there is no guarantee that she's going to get a
name that's at all easy to pronounce--Gaelic and English have
completely different spelling rules.  On the other hand, many SCA
people have difficult names and many times they don't know how to
pronounce them themselves.

Zenobia Naphtali, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Tecangl Bach,
Walraven van Nijmege, Arval Benicoeur, Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte,
Talan Gwynek, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, and Aryanhwy Prytydes verch Catmael
Caermyrddin 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) The persona has "Norse ancestry, but is primarily Gaelic...  Her
mother being raped by a British soldier on her wedding night.  Her
father was killed trying to defend her.  Her mother went mad after her
birth, so her persona was basically left to raise herself."  You also
mentioned that the character herself is mentally unbalanced, frightens
her boyfriend, and raises sheep.