ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1381 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1381 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 10 Jan 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if you could construct an historically accurate Irish feminine name for the period 1200-1400, with your given name either or , and your surname either or You were also interested in any information on the surname . Here is what we found. You told us you had found and on one of our web pages. We think you have misspelled the first name, because our list shows . Unfortunately, we have found only one historical instance of each name, both much earlier than your period. Therefore, we can't recommend either name [1, 5]. We can recommend a name similar to your second choice. (where the / represents an acute accent over the previous letter) is a fine Irish name [7]. It was pronounced \MORE\. If you'd like to consider some other possibilities, you may want to revisit our library, for example reference [5]. The descriptive epithet means "fair", and it is quite appropriate for your period. An earlier spelling is recorded in the 12th century in an Irish woman's name [5]. However, Gaelic grammar requires the initial consonant sound to soften to in a woman's name. This change is called "lenition". is pronounced \INN\. is a fine late-medieval Irish woman's name, though you couldn't register it with the SCA College of Arms without changing the given name or adding another surname: Exactly that name is already registered [7]. In your period Irish Gaelic women were usually known as their father's daughters. Women did occasionally use descriptive bynames like , but in formal circumstances they were known primarily by their parentage. The Gaelic word for is , pronounced \IN-yen\. Mo/r the daughter of Fergus would have been called . is the possessive form of , just as is the possessive of in English, and the change from to is the same grammatical process we discussed above. If you want to choose a name for your persona's father, you can find a list of common Gaelic men's names on the web: 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100/ The spellings given on this list are too early for your period, and the grammar of Gaelic names is complicated and somewhat irregular, so if you pick a few names that interest you, you may want to contact us to get the correct spellings and pronunciations. is an English form of the Gaelic family name , where the slashes indicate accents over the preceding letters. This family or clan name was ultimately derived from the early medieval given name . It literally means "male descendent of O/ga/n" and in practice meant "man of the O/ hO/ga/in clan" [2, 3]. A woman of that clan would have been described with a byname that literally means "daughter of the man of the O/ hO/ga/in clan". of that clan would have been called , pronounced \MORE IN-yen ee OWE-gahn\. If your father were named , you might be known most formally as , \MORE IN-yen AIR-goos-@ ee OWE-gahn\. The symbol \@\ represents a schwa, the last sound in . It would be perfectly authentic to use different forms of your name in different circumstances. might be called on some occasions, on others, and on others still. And of course it would be entirely consistent with Society custom to call yourself something like for now and decide on the rest of your name later. and are distinct English surnames derived from different sources. Both derive from place names. appears in 1191 in the name , in 1249 , and in 1577 . There is a place of this name in Wiltshire which may be the source of the name in some cases. probably derives from a French place name. We find a in 1153 and in 1158 [4]. Either surname could have been carried to Ireland by an Anglo-Norman settler, but it is unlikely that either would have been combined with a Gaelic given name. If you choose to use either surname for your persona, we recommend that you choose an English or Norman given name. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write to us again if any part of the letter has been unclear or if you have other questions. We were assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Giles Leabrook & Arval Benicoeur 10 Jan 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------- References [1] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976). [2] MacLysaght, Edward. Irish Families (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), s.n. Hogan. [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. O/ga/n. [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.nn. Somervell, Summerfield. [5] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" (WWW, Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996). http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html [6] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. o/ hO/ga/in. [7] Mari ingen Briain meic Donnchada, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Feminine Names" (WWW: Medievalscotland.org, 2000-2004) http://medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/. [8] O'Corrain and Maguire s.n. Muirenn. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 3 Jan 2003, Arval: Replaced the recommendation of with , a much more common name. Correction 15 Jul 2012, Aryanhwy: Arval's correction didn't replace all the occurrence of , and is also not a good choice since we don't have evidence for in the period 1200-1400; I have substituted instead and replaced footnote [7].