ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1414 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1414 ************************************ 29 Dec 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help choosing a Scottish feminine name, using as your surname. You wrote that you had considered the first names and , but that you'd like us to suggest other possibilities. Here is what we have found. First a little background: In our period, several different cultures shared the land was now think of as Scotland, speaking several different languages. You wrote that you are interested in a Lowland persona. The distinction between Highland and Lowland culture was most significant late in our period, from the 14th century onward, when 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. As you know, neither nor was used in your period. was not used as a first name in English until the 19th century, and is found only in Irish mythology, not in real, historical use [1, 2]. (The slash in the name represents an accent on the previous letter.) There is an Italian name similar to ; if your primary interest is having a name that sounds like and you are willing to move your persona to achieve that goal, then we may be able to help you. However, if you want a Scottish persona, then we cannot suggest any historical name that sounds very similar. would actually not be a good choice; it is pronounced \AY-vair\. If you'd like to consider some other names, you can find some lists of Scottish women's names on the web. If you want a Scots-speaking, Lowland persona, then you should look at lists of Scots names: Early 16th Century Scottish Town Women's Names http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/scottownwomen16.html A List of Feminine Personal Names Found in Scottish Records http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/scottishfem/ The second list is mostly Scots names, but also contains some Gaelic names recorded in Scots spellings. If you pick a name from the second list, check with us to make sure it is appropriate for your persona. We can also help you with the correct pronunciation, which is not obvious in many cases. If you want a Gaelic-speaking, Highland persona, you could look at this list: Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/scotgaelfem/ This list is fairly short. Because few documents were written in Gaelic in period Scotland, and because women are always underrepresented in period documents, we have only been able to find a few women's names that we know were used in period Scottish Gaelic. You can find a larger selection of Gaelic women's names in this article: Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's "Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html These names were taken from Irish material and some of them are legendary, but we believe that many of them were used in Scotland. They are spelled as they appeared in an early medieval Irish document; check with us for the correct spelling and pronunciation for your period. is a Scots or English spelling of the Gaelic patronymic name , which meant "son of Eoghann". In period Gaelic, surnames were used literally: The only person who would have been called was a man whose father was named . The use of surnames like to indicate clan membership is a modern development. A woman whose father was called would have been called "daughter of Eoghann>. This surname was pronounced \IN-yen yOAN~\ until the early 15th century, \NEE-yen yOAN~\ afterward. The \y\ is pronounced as in \yet\, but with less emphasis; \N~\ represents the sound in or the sound in French . A woman named , the daughter of a Scottish Gaelic man named , would have been called . Late in period, some Gaels settled in Scots-speaking areas, and eventually came to use their Gaelic patronymic surnames as inherited surnames. Thus, if moved to Aberdeen, he might have been known in Scots as . His daughter Agnes might have been called . We've found a number of Scots spellings of [2]: Malcolm mac Ewen before 1174 Gilpatrik mac Ewen 1219 Patrick McEwyn 1331 Johannes M'Eogan 1355 George Makewin 1526 James Makevin 1580 Allester Ma Kewin 1581, also We did not find a period example of the name spelling . 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 29 Dec 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. E/mer. [2] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983), s.n. Amber. [3] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. MacEwan.