ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1194 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1194 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 30 Aug 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help choosing a 14th to 16th century Scottish Gaelic woman's name, using or as your first name and , , or as your father's name. Here is what we have found. In your period, there were two important languages spoken in Scotland. Gaelic, the same language spoken in Ireland, was spoken in the Highlands. Scots, a language closely related to contemporary English, was spoken in the Lowlands, including the royal court and the towns. These two languages corresponded to two distinct cultures. Names were formed differently in each language, and the two styles of naming were not mixed. However, Scots was the language of writing in your period, so when Gaelic names were written, they were usually recorded in Scots spellings. is a name with a complicated history. It is a Scots spelling that could represent several different names, some Gaelic and some Scots [1]. We do know that or was a woman's name in Scots; we have found it in records from early 16th century Aberdeen [7]. It is most likely that this name is a Scots form of the English name , which was used by both men and women in period [4]. That name, used by women, is recorded in Scotland as in 1536 and as in 1563 [10]. Other Scots spellings found between 1521 and 1549 are , , , , and [3]. Most of the last set of examples are men's names, but some are probably women. In all its spellings, the Scots name was pronounced with two syllables, roughly \JELL-iss\ or \GELL-iss\ (with a hard \G\). We aren't sure whether the first letter was pronounced \J\ or \G\; based on contemporary English usage, we lean toward the \J\ [11]. A less likely source is the Gaelic woman's name , pronounced \GAIL-yaish\ (with a hard \G\). (The slash / in the name represents an accent on the preceding letter.) The only example we have of this name is in very early medieval Irish records (8th or 9th century, referring to people supposed to live in the 5th or 6th century) [5, 6]. Even there, the person bearing the name is semi-legendary. It is possible that this name survived in Scottish Gaelic until late period, and that is a Scots spelling of that name; but it isn't very likely. If you want to use or something very like it, then we recommend you choose a Scots (Lowland) name and persona. However, you wrote that you want a Gaelic name, so we'll focus on that choice. If you would like help completing a Scots name for your period, please write us again. is an English or Scots name. It was adopted into Gaelic, and might have been spelled and pronounced \EES-a-bell\. The Gaelic form of the name was recorded in Scots as , , and [8, 9]. Because we know that a Gaelic form of existed in your period, we recommend that you choose this name rather than . Turning to your choices for your father's name: is a fine choice, but isn't. is a Scots spelling of the Gaelic name , pronounced \DOO-wahl\ [2]. is one form of the name of several early Gaelic saints (including one who was the primary missionary to Scotland), but we've found no evidence that it was used after the 6th century. This not surprising: 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 [12]. These two-word given names were not uncommon among the Gaels. is not a good choice; it was not a name as far as we can tell. We're guessing that you are trying to extract the root name from a surname like . That surname actually derives from the Gaelic _first_ name \mahk-RAY\, which was used in Scotland at least from the 12th century to the end of our period [2, 5]. To put everything together, you should use the word , the Scottish Gaelic word for "daughter". If you choose the name for yourself and for your father, then you would be called "Iosobail daughter of Dubhghall" (just as your brother Eoin would be called ). The changes in spelling of your father's name are required by Gaelic grammar. The added to the last syllable puts the name into the possessive form (so that it means "Dubhghall's" or "of Dubhghall"). The resulting name is pronounced \EES-a-bell NEE-yen DOO-wahl\. As we noted earlier, the written language of late-period Scotland was Scots. Even though you have a Gaelic name, it would have been written in a Scots form. The name recommended in the previous paragraph might have been recorded as . The byname could also have been recorded in Scots as , , , [2]. 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 Geileis nic Dhughaill, Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch vc Rannylt, Margaret Makafee, and Giles Leabrook. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 30 Aug 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] The Gaelic man's name , pronounced \GILL-yeh EE-sa\, is recorded in various spellings in Scots documents, including 1376, 1484, 1521, 1592 [2]. The English masculine name was imported into Scots, where it appears as 1521, 1521, 1538, 1541, and 1549 [3] [2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Gillies, Maccrae, Macrath, Gillecalum, Malcolm, MacDougal, MacDoual. [3] The manuscript Aberdeen Council Registers, Volumes 8 - 20 (1501-1551), in the Aberdeen City Archives. [4] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Giles. [5] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Gelge/is. [6] Annals of Tigernach, in the Corpus of Electronic Texts (WWW: University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, 1996), section T653.6 http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100002/text009.html [7] Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, "Early 16th Century Scottish Town Women's Names" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996). http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/acr_1501_womens_names.html [8] Watson, William J., ed., _Scottish Verse from the Book of the Dean of Lismore_, Scottish Gaelic Texts, Volume 1. (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1937), p.307. [9] Morgan, Peadar, _Ainmean Chloinne: Scottish Gaelic Names for Children_ (Scotland: Taigh na Teud Music Publishers, 1989). [10] Clouston, J. Storer, ed., _Records of the Earldom of Orkney 1299-1614_ (Edinburgh: Scottish Historical Society, 1914). [11] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Gillet. [12] Black s.n. MacCallum O/ Corra/in and Maguire s.n. Ma/el Coluim 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 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in 'n', like , the letter 'D' does not normally lenite. Correction, 29 Jan 2004, Arval: We do not in fact have evidence of as a late-period Gaelic name. I have re-written the discussion of that name and replaced with in the examples in the rest of the letter. I also eliminated one of the suggested Scots forms of her name and the original note [12]: Yssbell nein Gowall [12] [12] In some dialects, the initial \D\ sound softened to \GH\ (the voiced version of \KH\) after the word . The masculine 1571 preserved the pronunciation of the lenition; our suggestion is based on that example [2]. That should have been removed with the previous correction.