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 had a son and a daughter , they would have been called and , 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. is a Latinized form of a name that was common in England from the 12th century onward and appears in Scotland as around the same time. These spellings were probably used only in written documents; the spoken form was probably more like . We have found the name in 16th century England spelled , , and [3, 4]. is a Scots or English spellings of the Gaelic name [4]. We have no evidence that the name 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, would be a reasonable choice [*]. The spelling 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 [*] is a Scots or English rendering of the Gaelic name . The Gaelic represented a much softer sound than the hard \K\ sound in , 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 , the letters 'D' and 'T' do not lenite. Correction, 26 May 2002, Arval: Replaced for so that we're using a form found in period records.