ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1257 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1257 ************************************ 22 Sep 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about the name , which you want to register for a Scottish female persona. Here is what we have found. Before I start, I'd like to clarify the service that the Academy offers. We try to help Societyfolk in choosing and using names that fit the historical cultures they are trying to re-create. Our research can sometimes be used to support submissions to the College of Arms, but that it not our goal and our results are often incompatible with the College's needs. If your main goal is to register a particular name, then we may not be able to help you. Late in our period, there were two languages spoken in Scotland: Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands, and Scots, spoken in the Lowlands and the towns. Gaelic is the same language spoken in Ireland at this time; Scots is closely related to contemporary English. Names were formed quite differently in the two languages, and the two styles of naming did not mix. Therefore, some names are possible in one culture but not in the other. is a masculine name in our period, an English or Scots diminutive of . We found these masculine examples in period Scotland [1]: Roben 1278 Robyn 1471 Robyne 1483 Robene 1567 We haven't found any evidence that or any other form of was used by women in period. appears in England in the early 17th century, but we haven't found it in Scotland in period. appears to be a post-period invention [2]. is an English or Scots spelling of the Gaelic name "son of Labhrunn/Laurence". In our period, in Gaelic, this type of surname was used literally: a man called was the son of a father whose given name was . The use of surnames to indicate clan membership didn't happen until well after our period. Obviously, a woman couldn't use that sort of name in Gaelic culture. Instead, she would have been known as her father's daughter, e.g. "Raghnailt daughter of Labhrunn". For more information about Gaelic naming in Scotland, we recommend these articles: Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/scotgaelfem/ Some Gaels settled in the Scots-speaking Lowlands, and toward the end of our period some of their originally-Gaelic surnames became hereditary, like modern surnames. In this circumstance, it was possible for a woman to use a surname: A daughter of a Scots family descended from Gaelic forebearers, living in the Lowlands in the 16th century, could have been called something like . ( appears as a Scots spelling of this name in 1592 [1].) If you'd like to consider some other woman's given names from the 16th century Lowlands, you can find a list on the web: Early 16th Century Scottish Town Women's Names http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/scottownwomen16.html Unfortunately, we can't avoid concluding that is not a name that could have been used by a woman in our period. It's a fine man's name for late-period Scotland, but if you want an authentic name to match your sex, you'll need to change your given name. (The College of Arms will register cross-gender names, so if you don't care whether you name matches your sex, you should have no problem.) 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 Talan Gwynek and Effrick neyn Kenyeoch. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 22 Sep 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. Stenhouse, Petty, Robinson, Weatherhead, Maclaren. [2] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). Oliver Cromwell (b.1599) had a sister named . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -