ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1217 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1217 ************************************ 9 Sep 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about the Clan Ruthven and if it is possible to use the clan name in your own name, . Here is what we have found. You may also find it useful to review the letters we wrote to you earlier this year [4]. was originally a Lowland family name, named after a barony in Angus. Early examples include 1244, (also , , and 1247-1270. The modern pronunciation, \RIHV-ehn\, apparently existed in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the name was recorded as 1438, 1485, 1560; but the full pronunciation \RUHTH-vehn\ was also used at that time and later: 1425, 1476, 1563 [1]. The Ruthven family was not a clan in our period. In modern Scotland, many Lowland families are clans, but this was not always so. The modern clan system is mostly an invention of the 18th century. There were certainly clans in period, but they were a feature of Gaelic, Highland culture, not the Scots-speaking culture of the Lowlands. Scots was a language closely related to English that was spoken mostly in the Lowlands in the last centuries of our period. Highland and Lowland cultures were quite distinct in this period. If you want to be a member of the period Ruthven family, then you should choose a Scots name. However, you wrote that you want a Gaelic name, so we're going to focus on that possibility. Many Gaels in period belonged to clans, but they didn't indicate clan membership in their names. The modern practice which links surnames to clan member, so that is a member of Clan MacKay, is a modern development. In period, (the Gaelic form of ) could have been a member of any clan. His name tells that his father's given name was . is a Gaelic adaptation of . It may be a modern form; the older Gaelic form, found in Ireland, is . (The slash represents an accent on the preceding vowel.) The Irish form was rare before the 17th century; Gaelic culture traditionally did not give saints names to children. Instead, it formed devotional names by compounding with the word (in Irish Gaelic) or (in Scottish Gaelic) or (in both dialects), which mean "servant" and "devotee", respectively. The Scottish Gaelic , pronounced \MOOL VUR-eh\ (with the \OO\ pronounced like the in ), literally means "servant of Mary" [1]. We found this name recorded in the latinized form around 1476 [3]. Unfortunately, we don't know much about the names that women used in Scottish Gaelic. Few documents were written in Gaelic in Scotland, and women are always under-represented in period documents. We have compiled a list of the few Scottish Gaelic women's names that we've found; you can find it on the web at http://www.panix.cm/~mittle/names/arval/scotgaelfem/ We have a great deal more information about women's names in Irish Gaelic. Irish and Scottish Gaelic were the same language in our period, and it is likely that many names found in Ireland were also used in Scotland. If you'd like to see a list of Gaelic women's names from period Ireland, you can find some in the articles available at http://www.panix.cm/~mittle/names/celtic.html was used in period both as a woman's given name and as a descriptive epithet meaning "black, dark" [2]. We're not sure how you intended to use it in your name. Gaels in our period did not use middle names (or double given names) as we do in modern English; a Scottish Gaelic woman of our period would have had only one given name. She might have been known by a nickname, too, like "Maol Mhuire the Black". The change in spelling from to is a requirement of Gaelic grammar. It changes the pronunciation from \KEE-ar\ to \KHEE-ar\. \KH\ is the sound of the in the Scottish word or the German . The rest of your name is a fine choice. The name is a Gaelic form of , which was introduced into Scotland in 1124 (when the romances of Alexander the Great were popular). The name was adopted into Gaelic by the 15th century, and probably much earlier [1, 2]. Unfortunately, we don't know how the name was spelled in Gaelic in period: All the examples we've found are from Scots or Latin documents. In one Gaelic document, the name is recorded as [3], which some authors have interpreted as [1]. or are pretty reasonable guesses of how the name might have appeared in Gaelic, so if you choose the given name (one of the names from the list we recommended above), then is a good choice for a period Scottish Gaelic name. That name could have been pronounced \MAR-se-lee IN-yen AHL-ahs-tare\ through the 15th century or so, or \MAR-se-lee NEE-yen AHL-ahs-tare\ from the mid-15th century onward [5]. 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 Afraig inghean Chainnigh mhic Arailt and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 9 Sept 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Ruthven, Muriel, Alexander, MacAlaster. [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [3] --, A photograph of the "1467 MS", a Gaelic genealogical manuscript, which is shelf-marked 72.1.1 in the Scottish National Library. Colm O'Boyle has kindly helped with our transcriptions from this manuscript.O/ Baoill, Colm, "Scotticisms in a Manuscript of 1467," _Scottish Gaelic Studies_ XV, no. Spring 1988 (1988): 122-139. [4] Copies of our past letters to you can be found on the web. http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?825 http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?826 http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?827 [5] The word was pronounced \IN-yen\ in the Middle Ages. In the last 150 years of our period, the pronunciation changed to \NEE-yen\. That pronunciation was eventually reflected in the spelling of word, which is in modern Scottish Gaelic. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -