ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1384 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1384 ************************************ 10 Dec 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our opinion of , which you would like to use for a 14th century Welshwoman who moved to Ireland with her husband. Here is what we have found. It is very hard to say what name a woman would use when she moved from one country to another, and particularly hard in the case of a Welsh woman moving into Irish Gaelic society. First of all, we don't have much evidence about how Welsh immigrants were identified in Gaelic culture in Ireland; it seems to have been fairly rare. Second, the evidence we do have is mostly men's names. Typically, we've seen three patterns: A traveller might continue to use her original name, or might use a translation of a name that was shared between both cultures, or might use a name in the local language that sounded similar to her original name. What we have not seen is mixing two languages in a single name, especially not when the languages use incompatible spelling systems as in Welsh and Gaelic. The Welsh could not be included in an otherwise-Gaelic name. If we were going to guess how a Welsh name would be adapted into Gaelic, we'd have to start with a particular Welsh name. In other words, you would first need to decide what you were called in Welsh before you moved to Ireland. For example, your Welsh name might have been "Mair (Mary) daughter of Cadwgan". However, we don't really recommend this approach: Anglo-Norman society in Ireland was largely separate from the native, Gaelic-speaking society. Anglo-Welsh people who went to Ireland in the medieval period continued to live and interact within Anglo-Norman society, and to use whatever form of name they used in Anglo-Norman society back in Wales. The native Irish did not look upon the Anglo-Welsh as any different from the rest of the English invaders; their shared ancient Celtic origin was probably generally unknown and certainly not relevent to daily life. Therefore, our best suggestion for an authentic name for a Welshwoman who moved to Ireland would be the same Welsh name she used at home. If you want to live in native Irish society, then we recommend you choose a normal Gaelic name. , pronounced \MORE\, was a very common woman's name in Gaelic culture in your period [1]. The slash represents an accent on the previous letter. is a modern Gaelic word that means "bold, brave, intrepid; determined; shameless, barefaced; 'naughty', as a child". In the Middle Ages, it was used as a personal sobriquet, at least for men, spelled or [2, 3]. In a 14th century woman's name, Gaelic grammar requires the initial consonant to soften from to , pronounced like the in . "Bold Mo/r" is a plausible name for an Irishwoman of your period, pronounced \MORE DHAH-n@\, where \@\ is a schwa, the final sound in the word . The word is the early-medieval spelling of the Gaelic word for "daughter", used in women's names just as "son" was used in men's names. By your period, it was spelled and pronounced \IN-yen\. For example, Mo/r Dha/na the daughter of Cathal would have been called . The added is the same softening that we mentioned above; it's called "lenition". The added puts the name into its possessive form, just like the <'s> in English . a Welsh masculine name, quite appropriate for your period. We found the name in 13th century records as [4]. However, as far as we can discover, there was no Gaelic cognate of this name so we cannot say how it could have been adopted into Gaelic. There is a similar-sounding Gaelic name , pronounced roughly \KAYD-@-khahn\. The name is not implausible for your period, but we cannot say whether it might have been considered the equivalent of the Welsh name [1, 5]. The Gaelic name is pronounced \MORE DHAH-n@ IN-yen KHAYD-@-khahn\, where \KH\ is the rasping sound in Scottish or German . We 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgan Glasvryn. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 10 Dec 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. Mor, Cetach. [2] Dinneen, Patrick S. _Foclo/ir Gaedhilge agus Be/arla_ (Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1979 [1927]), s.n. da/na. [3] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.n. da/nae. [4] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "A Simple Guide to Constructing 13th Century Welsh Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/welsh13.html [5] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. O/ Ce/adacha/in.