ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1438 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1438 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 28 Feb 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help constructing a Scottish Gaelic feminine name that would have been used between 1100 and 1500. You wanted your given name to be , and your father's name to be the appropriate Scottish Gaelic forms of , , or . Here is the information we have found. Of your three choices for your father's name, only one was used in Gaelic. The Gaelic form of is , pronounced \KIN-#gh\ [1,2]. the daughter of would have been known as , which is pronounced \ISS-@-bel IN-yen KHIN-#gh-a\ [3]. In these pronunciations, \@\ represents the initial vowel sound in the word , \#\ a vowel sound similar to one in , and \gh\ the voiced version of the harsh, rasping sound found in Scottish or German . The change in spelling from to is a requirement of Gaelic grammar. These spellings are appropriate for late period. >From the late 14th century onward, 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. Written records were not written in Gaelic in your period. Rather, they were written in Scots. Your name could have been recorded in Scots as . Earlier in period, most records were written in Latin. would probably have been written in Latin as , but we have not been able to find a Latin form of . If you want to set your persona before the 14th century and want a Latin form of your name, write us again and we'll try to make a reasonable guess. We have not found Scottish Gaelic forms of or , so we recommend you avoid them. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael February 28, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.n. Cina/ed [2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986). s.n. Mackenna [3] Arval Benicoeur, "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/arval/scotgaelfem/