ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1360 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1360 ************************************ 12 Jan 1999 From: Jodi McMaster Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the name would be appropriate during the 1400's for a Scottish woman. You also noted that your second choice for a first name was . 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. Beginning in the late 14th century, there were two main languages spoken in Scotland: Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands, and Scots, spoken in the Lowlands, including the royal court and 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, the culture you choose for your persona will determine how your name should be constructed. To our knowledge, neither of these cultures used the names of herbs, plants, trees, or fungi as given names during our period. We did find a similar Scots name , which is a Scots version of the Gaelic name . [1] The Gaelic name was pronounced, roughly, \MOOR-yell\, with \y\ like the "y" in English and \OO\ like the "oo" in English . Your second choice, , is an English spelling of the possessive case of , a Gaelic man's name, so we do not recommend it. is an Anglicized form of the Gaelic patronymic byname . (A "patronymic byname" is a second name identifying someone using his or her father's name.) is itself a Gaelic borrowing of the name . [1] In Gaelic in your period patronymic bynames were literal, so , which means "son of Labhran," would be used by a man whose father was named . Labhran's daughter would be called , meaning "daughter of Labhran." You'll note the spelling of changes to after and . This is required by Gaelic grammar to make it possesive, like changing to in English. The pronunciation of was undergoing a change in Scotland during the 15th century, so in the early 1400s would have been pronounced roughly \IN-yen LAW-rahn~\ while in the late 1400's it may have been pronounced roughly \NEE-yen LAW-rahn~\. In both cases, the \y\ is like the "y" in English and \n~\ is like the "n~" in Spanish or the "gn" in French . You had mentioned in your letter as the connector to mean "daughter of." It's a modern contraction of Gaelic , then pronounced \NEE-yen vik\, which meant 'daughter of Mac.' [1] It did not arise until the late 16th century, and was a rare usage. It would not be appropriate for your name. Records were very rarely written in Gaelic in period Scotland. The languages of writing were Latin and Scots. Therefore, if your name were written down, it would have been in a Latin or Scots form. A Gaelic woman named might have appeared in a Scots language document as or . In a Latin document, she might have been . [1] We did not find any examples of names using the spelling until modern times. We did find these Scots spellings of . You could use any of them for your own name by dropping , or and replacing it by or .: M'Lern 1466 Maklaurene 1586 M'Laurent 1587 McLaran 1592 These suggestions are appropriate if you want a Gaelic name, for a woman living in the Highlands of Scotland. If you want a Scots-language name, you'll need to follow Lowland naming practices, which were much the same as in England. was adopted into Scots as , and appears in Scots as in the 14th or 15th century [1, 2]. is a fine name for a Lowland woman in your period, and is somewhat similar to the name you asked about. Therefore, if you wish to be a Gaelic-speaking Scottish woman, we recommend . If you wish to be a Scots-speaking Scottish woman, we recommend . We hope this letter has been helpful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Arval Benicoeur, Alan Fairfax, Walraven van Nijmegen, Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, and Tangwystyl ferch Morgan Glasvryn contributed comments and/or research for this letter. For the Academy, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum __________________ References: [1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Gray, Inchbaikie, MacLaren, Muriel, Nic, and Nin. [2] Maloney, Bryan J., _13th & 14th Century Scottish Names by Symon Freser of Lovat_ (WWW: Josh Mittleman 1998) at http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/symonFreser/scottish14/