ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1185 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1185 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 4 Sep 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would have been used as a Highland Scottish masculine name in the 12th and 13th centuries. Here is the information we have found. In 12th and 13th centuries, several languages were spoken in the area that is Scotland today. The major ones were: * Norse, spoken in the far north and the western isles. * English, spoken mainly in the southeast. * Gaelic, spoken through much of the country. * Norman French, spoken by Norman settlers and their Scoto-Norman descendents, mostly in the south. The languages were very different and had different naming customs. There was some mixing of names from the different cultures, but most names were not adopted into all of the cultures. is an English name. It was not adopted into Scottish Gaelic, as far as we can tell. It wasn't common in England in your period, though we found one example in the Latinized form in 1201 [3]. It is possible that the name was carried into Scotland by English or Norman settlers in the 12th or 13th century; if so, it is most likely to have been used among English-speakers or Scoto-Normans. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the name shows up in the Lowlands in the diminutive form or [1], but we didn't find that form as early as the 13th century. Because we believe that you want a Gaelic name, not an English or Norman name, we're going to concentrate on that possibility. If you prefer to use and you're willing to consider a non-Gaelic name, please write us again and we'll discuss that option. Although was not used in Gaelic in Scotland, it was associated with the Gaelic given name or (the slash represents an accent over the previous letter). That name, pronounced \GILL-a KHREEST\ (where \KH\ represents the hard, rasping sound found in Scottish or German ), is recorded in Scotland throughout the 12th and 13th centuries [1], so it would be a fine choice for your period. It appears in the 12th century as . [4] is an English form of , a patronymic byname (a nickname based on the father's name) meaning literaly "son of ." In the 12th century, the expected spelling would be . would be a fine 12th century name. Most of the customs of the modern Scottish clan system are purely modern, dating back no further than the 18th century, though some of the modern clans do trace their origins further back in history. There were clans in your period, but they were so different from the modern notion of clans as to be unrecognizable. The first Mackays that we found were in 1160. [5] In terms of naming, period Gaelic speakers did not indicate clan membership in their names. It would be perfectly reasonable to talk about your clan membership, but it wouldn't be included as part of your name. A name like , a Gaelic form of appropriate for the 12th century, would have meant not that you were from the clan , but that that your father's given name was . If you'd like to consider other possible choices for your father's given name, we recommend the article "A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Names," which you can find on the web at http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.html One final note: In your letter, you wrote that your mother is Celtic. The word describes a group of languages or cultures, including the Irish and Scottish Gaels, but also including the Welsh, Cornish, Manx, and Bretons. All these nations considered themselves quite separate in our period; no one thought of himself as a Celt. In fact, the word "Celt" first appeared in the English language in 1607, "Celtic" in 1656. [2] 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 Talan Gwynek, Roulland Carre, Arval Benicoeur, Walraven van Nijmegen, Brad Miller, and Effrick neyn Kennyeoch. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy Caermyrdin merch Catmael September 4, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Christopher, Gilchrist, Brown, Kennedy, Gilgrewer, Chrystal, Mccristal [2] --, _The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973). [3] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). [4] Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, "A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Bynames", (WWW: Privately published, 18 June 1997) http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/simple_sc_gaelic_names_12.html [5] Martine, Roddy, _Scottish Clan and Family Names_ (Edinburgh & London: Mainstream Publishing; ISBN 1-85158-418-8)