ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1494 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1494 ************************************ 16 Mar 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether , which you translate as "Galen daughter of Colyne son of Suibne, storyteller of Skye", is an appropriate name for a woman living on the isle of Skye between 1250 and 1500. You mentioned that you've also used the forms , , and other forms. Here is what we have found. There are a number of features of your name which are not authentic for the culture you're trying to re-create. We'll discuss each of them in detail and suggest some alternatives that will give you a more authentic name. The discussion is lengthy, so please bear with us. Please note that the Academy's purpose is to give advice on choosing authentic names. We do not approve or reject names, and we are not connected with the SCA College of Arms. Our standards are not the same as those used by the SCA College of Arms and we do not generally try to predict the College's decisions. If you are interested in using an authentic Scottish Gaelic name, then we hope this letter will help you reach that goal. Between 1250 and 1500, several different languages were spoken in different parts of Scotland. From the 14th century onward, the main languages were Gaelic and Scots. Gaelic, the same as the language of Ireland, was spoken in the Highlands and Western Isles. Scots, a close relative of English, was spoken in the Lowlands. Names in the two languages were formed very differently, and the two styles were not mixed. Their spelling systems were also very different and incompatible. You've chosen a Gaelic-speaking area and you are clearly interested in a Gaelic name, so we'll focus on that possibility You wrote that is a traditional name in the Swiss-German side of your family, and that you have found record of it in Scotland in the 1490s. We have found no evidence that this name was used in period by men or women in Scotland or anywhere else in Europe. In particular, as far as we can tell, the use of as a woman's name is a modern development [2]. If you know of period examples of the name, we'd be very interested to learn of them. was the name of a 2nd century Greek doctor. His works were very well known in medieval and renaissance Europe, and he was constantly cited in period Scottish Gaelic medical manuscipts [1]. We're pretty confident that this is the source of the Gaelic use of that you found. If so, it is not evidence that any Gael in period was named . For these reasons, we can only recommend that you choose a different name. If you'd like to consider some other women's names used in Scottish Gaelic, you can find a short list on-line: Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names http://www.panix.com/~mittle/arval/scotgaelfem/ Very few documents were written in Gaelic in Scotland in our period, so little evidence remains of women's names. This article lists all the ones that we've found so far. A great many more names are recorded in Irish Gaelic records, though, and many of those were probably used in Scotland, too. If you'd like, we can send you a list of Gaelic women's names beginning with or some other letter. There doesn't seem to be one that sounds much like , though; the closest we can do is , pronounced \GAIL-yaish\ [3]. The slash in the name represents an accent on the preceding letter. In our period, a woman in Scottish Gaelic culture was typically known as her father's daughter. Marsaili, daughter of Cailean mac Suibhne, would have been called . The word , pronounced \IN-yen\ until 1500 or so and \NEE-yen\ later in period, means "daughter". It was used in period Gaelic women's names in the same way that "son" was used in men's names. is a modern word in Scottish Gaelic, and did not exist in period, so it is not appropriate for any pre-1600 name [4]. You'll notice that transformed to in his daughter's name. The change is required by Gaelic grammar. The change from to represents a softening of the sound, called "lenition", that occurs in some grammatical circumstances. In this case, the \K\ sound becomes \KH\, which is the raspy sound of the in the Scottish word or the German . The other spelling changes puts the name into its possessive form, just like the <'s> in English . This is necessary so that the phrase will mean "Cailean's daughter". is a Scots or English spelling of and probably one or two other Gaelic names. is a fine name for your father; we have found it recorded in 1467 as [5]. It was pronounced roughly \KAHL-y@n\, and the phrase is pronounced \IN-yen KHAHL-yain\. The symbol \@\ represents a schwa, the first sound in [11]. is an early medieval spelling of a name that was later usually written . Gaelic spelling underwent a significant change around the year 1200. The later spelling is appropriate for your period. The name was indeed used by Scottish Gaels; we have examples ranging from the early 13th century to the early 16th [6]. It was not common for Gaels to record two generations of ancestry in their names. We have found late-period examples, mostly in the 16th century [7]. We don't recommend it as a common style of naming, but it isn't impossible. Marsaili in the example above could perhaps have been called . The changes to result from the same grammatical rules that we discussed earlier. The resulting name in the 16th century would have been pronounced \MAR-se-lee NEE-yen KHAHL-yain vick WEE-ny@\. Note that the use of in your father's name, in period Gaelic, would have meant that _his_ father was named . It would not have indicated a clan affiliation. The Scottish practice of using surnames like to indicate clan affiliation is a modern innovation. In period, such names were only used literally in Scottish Gaelic. is the modern form of a word that was in period Irish and was probably in Scottish Gaelic [8]. All these forms are masculine. At least in Irish, there was a feminine form , which literally means "woman fili". We found a couple early medieval Irish examples of women identified by this title, so it seems to be an appropriate part of your own name [8, 10]. If the woman in our examples above had been a file, she might have been known as , \MAR-se-lee BAHN-EE-ly@ NEE-yen KHAHL-yain\. You translated as "storyteller". That's a very loose translation. was a bardic rank. A file was a formally trained, professional poet [1]. The phrase is modern Scottish Gaelic for "from Skye". It is not an appropriate part of a period Gaelic name. Except in some titles of rank, Scottish Gaels did not include the places where they lived in their Gaelic names. Locative bynames (surnames based on place names) were extremely common in Scots and English, but not in Gaelic. We recommend you avoid it. In one of your alternate name constructions, you included the surname . We did not find evidence of this name used in Scotland. In Ireland, it is a modern English spelling of a Gaelic patronymic surname, probably [9]. That's a masculine patronymic (a surname that identifies a man as his father's son). If you are interested in the feminine form appropriate for your period, let us know. However, a woman of our period would only have used such a surname in Gaelic if her father's given name were . We're not sure which way you'll want to go from here. If you want more information, you can write us again. You can also find a more detailed discussion of the construction of period Scottish Gaelic names in a couple articles we've posted on the web: A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Names http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.html Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ 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 Walraven van Nijmegen, Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Hartmann Rogge, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Barak Raz. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 16 Mar 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Thomson, Derick S., ed. _The Companion to Gaelic Scotland_ (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983), s.vv. manuscripts, medical; verse, bardic; schools, bardic. [2] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983), s.n. Galen. [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Gelge/is. [4] originated after our period as a contraction of the phrase "daughter of Mac". That phrase was pronounced \NEE-yen VICK\. [5] Skene, William F., "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 1. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, with a Translation,", pp 50-62, and "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 2. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, continued," pp. 357-60, _Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis consisting of Original Papers and Documents Relating to the History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, ed. The Iona Club (Edinburgh: Thomas G. Stevenson, 1847). [6] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. MacQueen, MacSween. [7] Black, op. cit., p.xlii and passim. [8] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983). [9] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. Mac Muirnigh. [10] Ellis, Peter Beresford , _Celtic Women_ (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1995). [11] The standard modern spelling of is . The possessive form is , and as a woman's patronymic it is .