ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1435
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1435
************************************
*************************************************
* *
* NOTE: Later research turned up additional *
* information relevant to this report. *
* See the end of the letter for details. *
* *
*************************************************
7 Feb 1999
From: (Josh Mittleman)
Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked whether women in 16th century England, Scotland, and Ireland used
their father's surnames until they were married. Here is what we have
found.
Since your question is so broad, we can't go into detail on all the
possibilities. We'll sketch the larger picture; please write us again if
you want more information on names from one of these cultures.
In 16th century English, surnames were predominantly used in the modern
manner: A child of either sex inherited her father's surname, and a woman
adopted her husband's surname upon marriage [1, 2]. In 16th century
Lowland Scotland, where they spoke a language called Scots that was closely
related to English, children also inherited their father's surnames, but
women did not take their husband's surnames. That practice did not spread
into Scotland until after our period [5, 6].
In the 16th century, in Gaelic-speaking cultures in both the Scottish
Highlands and Ireland, there were no surnames in the modern sense. Both
men and women used "patronymics", i.e. bynames that identified them as
their father's children. If a man called <Domhnall mac Aonghais> had a son
<Eoghan> and a daughter <Ealusaid>, they would have been called <Eoghan mac
Domhnaill> and <Ealusaid inghean Domhnaill>, which simply mean "Eoghan son
of Domhnall" and "Ealusaid daughter of Domhnall". You can find more
information on the construction and pronunciation of period Gaelic names on
the web:
Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames
http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/
In one of your notes, you used "Cecilia, daughter of Donnel", as your
example. <Cecilia> is a Latinized form of a name that was common in
England from the 12th century onward and appears in Scotland as <Cicilia>
around the same time. These spellings were probably used only in written
documents; the spoken form was probably more like <Cecily>. We have found
the name in 16th century England spelled <Cecily>, <Cecilie>, and <Sysley>
[3, 4].
<Donnel> is a Scots or English spellings of the Gaelic name <Domhnall> [4].
We have no evidence that the name <Cecilia> was used in Gaelic in our
period, so we recommend against this combination of names if you want a
Gaelic-speaking persona. By the 16th century, some Gaelic patronymics were
adopted into Scots as inherited surnames; so if you want a 16th century
Scots names, <Cecilie M'Connill> would be a reasonable choice [*]. The
spelling <M'Connill> is recorded in 1597. Other sixteenth century forms
include [4]:
M'Connyll 1545
McConnil 1564
McConile 1571
M'Conill 1580
McConnaill 1581
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, Walraven van Nijmegen,
and Effrick neyn Kenneoch.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
7 Feb 1999
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Notes
[*] <M'Connill> is a Scots or English rendering of the Gaelic name <mac
Dhomhnaill>. The Gaelic <Dh> represented a much softer sound than the hard
\K\ sound in <mac>, and to English speakers, it sounded as if the \K\ sound
was part of the second word. We actually don't know how this name would
have appeared if it had been adopted as a Scots surname in your period.
References
[1] Richard McKinlay, _The Surnames of Oxfordshire_, English Surname Series
III (London: Leopard's Head Press Limited, 1977), p.191.
[2] Richard McKinlay, _The Surnames of Lancashire_, English Surname Series
IV (London: Leopard's Head Press Limited, 1981), p.54.
[3] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English
Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997)
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/reaney/
[4] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and
History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Tremblay,
Macdonald.
[5] Krossa, Sharon L., "A Study of Expectations: Women in the Burgh of
Aberdeen in the Later Middle Ages" (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Aberdeen,
forthcoming 1998) p. 123.
[6] Whyte, Ian D., _Scotland Before the Industrial Revolution: An Economic
& Social History c. 1050-1750_, ed. J. V. Beckett, _Longman Economic &
Social History of Britain_ (London: Longman, 1995).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in 'n', like <inghean>,
the letters 'D' and 'T' do not lenite.
Correction, 26 May 2002, Arval: Replaced <Ealusaid> for <Ealasaid> so that
we're using a form found in period records.