ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1176 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1176 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 13 Aug 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if was a period Irish feminine name. Here is the information we have found. , also spelled , is a later-period spelling of the Irish name . (The slashes represent accents over the previous letters). It was quite popular in the later Middle Ages. [1] The spelling was used before 1200 and the spelling after 1200. The spelling is used in modern times, but we don't know whether it was used before 1600. They are all pronounced \LAHS-ir-REE-na\, with \i\ as in . In the Middle Ages, the most common style of name for an Irish person was a given name followed by a patronymic byname. A patronymic byname is a surname based of the father's name. For information on how to form a patronym, we suggest you read the following article in our library: "Quick & Easy Gaelic Bynames" http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/quick_gaelic_bynames.html We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Alan Fairfax, Walraven van Nijmegen, Arval Benicoeur, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, --Arianui filia Catmaili --------------------------------------- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990).