ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1262
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1262
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* NOTE: Later research turned up additional     *
*       information relevant to this report.    *
*       See the end of the letter for details.  *
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From: "S Friedemann" 
3 Oct 1998

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked about the Irish feminine name <Brigit Sluagh>, which you intended
to mean "Brigit of the Little People."  You wanted to know if this would be
appropriate for the period between 800 and 1300.  Here is the information we
have found.

<Brigit> was an Irish goddess who became a saint after the Irish converted
to Christianity in the 5th century.  We don't know if her name was given to
children before the conversion, but after that, the Irish tended to avoid
naming their children after the holiest saints.    <Brigit> did not come
into common use in Ireland until modern times.  Names such as <Ma/el Brigte>
or <Gilla Brigte>, meaning "servant of [Saint] Bridget," were used instead
[1].  (The slashes represent accents over the previous letters.)  These are
pronounced

     <Ma/el Brigte> \MULL VREE-djeh\, with the \mull\ as in "pull"
     <Gilla Brigte> \GILL-a VREE-djeh\, with the \g\ as in "get"

<Ma/el Brigte> was used as both a masculine and feminine name, but <Gilla
Brigte> was exclusively masculine.

The word <sluagh> in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic means "host, multitude,
crowd, army."  In period, it had military overtones.  We found no evidence
that <sluagh> means "of the Little People," or that it was used as a
personal nickname.

We are also not aware of any authentic Gaelic nickname that would imply that
one is a fairy.  We suggest that you consider using a different type of
nickname, one that is historically correct for your desired period in
Ireland.  In Gaelic culture, a woman was most often known as her father's
daughter.  If your father was named <Eoin mac Domhnaill>, you could be
called <Ma/el Brigte inghean Eoin> "Ma/el Brigte daughter of Eoin."  If you
would like help choosing a name for your father, please write again with
some ideas, and we'd be happy to offer suggestions.

Women also used descriptive nicknames in some cases.  We have an article on
the web that discusses Gaelic women's names of the 12th century and gives
some examples of descriptive nicknames that were used.

  Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's "Corpus Genealogiarum
  Hiberniae"
     http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html

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, Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch,
Arval Benicoeur, and Pedro de Alcazar.

For the Academy,
--Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael
     October 3, 1998

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References:

[1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The
Lilliput Press, 1990).

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Annotation, Aryanhwy, 24 October 2006:
Later research on <Ma/el X> names used by women, specifically
<Maol Bhri/ghde>, which supercedes the research in this letter
can be found in Academy of S. Gabriel Report #2407,
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2407