ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1209 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1209 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 30 Aug 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help creating an Pictish name using as your given name and the proper form of either or as your surname. Here is the information we have found. The name or was fairly common in a list of Pictish kings from circa 500-1000. It would be an excellent Pictish names. The root of the surname is the Old Irish name . [1] It is listed as one of the ten most common names in early Irish genealogies. Other variants that we found are and . [2,3] Three ways that you could combine these two elements to create a Gaelic name are as follows: These all mean "Drust, son of Cormacc," and are pronounced \DR@ST mahk KOR-mayk\. (The @ represents the sound in the first vowel of "about.") The last of these three is a somewhat later form than the other two; all three are fine choices. The spelling change from to or to is required by Gaelic grammar; it is analogous to the change from to in English. We can't say where the name might originate. It's a simple enough set of sounds that it could come from many different languages, or your grandparents may even have invented it. If you are interested in using it as part of a period name, we might be able to justify it as a surname in some times and places in period; but we haven't found any Pictish name similar to it. If you'd like to consider a name from some other time and place, please write us again. 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Arval Benicoeur, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, --Arianuia filia Catmaili August 30, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Cormacc [2] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983). [3] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976).