ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1446
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1446
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2 Feb 1999
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked for help choosing a pre-1300 feminine Irish name and for
information about the first names <Brona>, <Duvessa>, <Saraid>, and
<Whiltierna>, and about the descriptive epithet <Caelleach>, which is
supposed to mean "knower of horses".  Here is what we have found.

Before we start, we'd like to define some terms, just to avoid confusion.
A "given name" is a first name.  A "byname" is a type of surname,
specifically one that was not fixed or inherited, but which was simply one
of various possible ways to distinguish the individual from other people
with the same given name.  A "patronymic" is a type of byname that
identifies a person as her father's child.  In period Irish Gaelic, people
were most often identified by a given name plus a patronymic byname.  A
"descriptive byname" is an epithet, like <Lionheart> in <Richard Lionheart>
or <Little> in <Little John>.

<Brona> appears to be a modern spelling of the name <Bronach>, which was
both a masculine and feminine given name in early medieval Ireland [1].  If
you want a name appropriate for the 9th to 11th centuries, <Bronach> would
be a reasonable choice; if you want a later period, we suggest you consider
alternatives.  It was pronounced \BROHN-ahkh\, where \kh\ represents the
harsh, rasping sound of the <ch> in the Scottish word <loch> or German
<Bach>.  The name did derive from a word meaning "sorrow", but it isn't
really correct to say that it _means_ "sorrow".  What sets personal names
apart from other words in a language is their lack of meaning: They are
identifiers, not descriptions.  Almost all names originally derived from a
regular word in some language, but in becoming names they gained a usage
separate from their normal meaning.  Consider, for example, how often the
meaning of the word <heather> is relevant to a modern woman named
<Heather>.  Or, more obviously, how often it is relevant to a man named
<Thomas> that his name derives from an Aramaic word that means "twin".  The
notion that names have meanings is fundamentally mistaken.

<Duvessa> is also an English spelling; the original Gaelic name was <Dub
Essa>, <Dubh Easa>, or <Duibheasa>.  The first spelling was used before
1200 or so, the other two later.  It was fairly common in 13th and 14th
century Ireland and was pronounced roughly \DIV-yah-sa\ [1].  It would be a
fine choice for your period.

<Saraid> is a late-medieval spelling of a name found in Irish and Scottish
legend as the ancestress of the people of Muskerry and the kings of
Scotland.  We have not found an example of a real person using the name, so
we recommend you avoid it [1].

<Whiltierna> is an English spelling of <Faoiltiarna> (late spelling) or
<Fai/ltigerna> (early).  The slash represents an accent on the preceding
letter.  This name is something of a mystery.  It is an alternate spelling
of the _masculine_ <Fai/ltigern>, the name of an early Irish saint.  We
believe that it was misread as a feminine name because it ends in <-a>.
Names ending in <-a> are almost always feminine in English and in Romance
languages, but can be either masculine or feminine in Irish.  The
underlying root word <tigern> or <tigerna> is masculine; but we have also
found it in the feminine name <Co/eltigern> [1, 2, 3].  Therefore we cannot
say for certain that <Fai/ltigern> could not also have been used as a
feminine name, but we have found no evidence that it was.  We do not
recommend this name as good re-creation for a woman.


We did not find <Caelleach> as a word or name in modern or medieval Irish.
Our best guess is that it is an unusual spelling either of the masculine
first name <Cellach> or of the word <Cailleach> "veiled woman, nun" [4].
You could use either of those words in your name, but not simply as a
descriptive byname.  Neither word derives from a word meaning "horse" or
anything like it.  It is possible that someone mistakenly related one of
these words to the Gaelic <each> "horse" [3].

In period, Irish women were usually known as their father's daughters.  A
13th century woman <Duibheasa>, daughter of <Cellach>, would have been
called <Duibheasa inghean Chellaich>, which simply means "Duibheasa
daughter of Cellach".  The spelling changes in <Chellaich> are required by
Gaelic grammar.  The change from <C> to <Ch> represents a softening of the
initial sound that occurs in Gaelic women's bynames; it is called
"lenition".  The added <i> puts the name into its possessive form, so that
it means "Cellach's".  This name is pronounced \DIV-yah-sa IN-yen
CHELL-ich\, where both uses of \ch\ are pronounced like the soft, hissy
<ch> in German <ich>.

If you'd like to consider other choices for your father's given name, you
can find a good list on-line:

  100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland
    http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100

The word <Cailleach> was occasionally used to form women's devotional names
in Gaelic.  Medieval Gaels felt it was inappropriate to name children after
important saints; they considered some names to be too holy to profane with
normal use.  Instead, they gave their children compound devotional names.
For example, <Ma/ire>, the Gaelic form of <Mary>, was not used as a
personal name in medieval Ireland.  Instead, a girl might have been named
<Cailleach Mhuire> "veiled woman of Mary", with the sense "devotee of
Mary".  These devotional names were first names.  If you're interested in
this possibility, write us again and we'll give you more details.


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,
Talan Gwynek, and Teceangl Bach.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  2 Feb 1999


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References

[1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The
Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. Bronach, Dub Essa, Sarait, Fai/ltigern.

[2] O/ Riain, Pa/draig, ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae_
(Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1985).

[3] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on
Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983).

[4] Kneen, J.J., The Personal Names of the Isle of Man (London: Oxford
University Press, 1937).