ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1533
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1533
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16 Feb 1999
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Aidan> was used as a given name in period Scotland.
This letter is a brief answer to your question.

<Aidan> is a modern English spelling of the early medieval Gaelic name
<A/eda/n>.  (The slash represents an accent over the preceding letter.)
This name was relatively common in early medieval Ireland.  We have found
only one example in Scotland, a king of Argyll who lived around 600 AD.  In
the late Middle Ages, it would have been spelled <Aodha/n>, but we're not
sure it was used in either country after the 10th century or so.  Its
modern popularity dates to a revival in the 19th or 20th century.  The name
is a fine choice for an early-period persona, and a plausible choice for a
late-period Irish persona [1, 2, 3, 4].

The pronunciation of <A/eda/n> changed over the centuries.  Before the 10th
century, it was pronounced something like \AIDH-ahn\, where \AI\ represents
the vowel in <sigh> and \DH\ represents the <th> sound in <this>.  We don't
have examples of this name after this point in history, but we can deduce
how it would have been pronounced by looking at similar names and words.
Around the year 1000, it would have been \ADH-ahn\, with the initial vowel
pronounced as in <cat>, and in the 12th century \EHDH-ahn\, with the vowel
in <let>.  After 1200, when the name was spelled <Aodha/n>, the \DH\ sound
softened to produce the pronunciation \EHGH-ahn\.  \GH\ is the voiced
version of the rasping <ch> sound in the Scottish word <loch> or the German
<Bach>.  Toward the end of our period, the <dh> might have been silent and
the initial vowel sound changed yet again, so that the name would be
\AY-ahn\ in Ireland and or \#-ahn\ in Scotland.  \#\ represents a vowel
that doesn't exist in English; you can produce it by trying to say \oo\ (as
in <woo>) with your lips positioned as if you were saying \ee\.

If you want a Scottish name, it would be better re-creation to use a name
that is better documented in use in period Scotland.  You might want to
consider the similar name <A/ed> (early medieval spelling) or <Aodh>
(post-1200 spelling) [2, 3, 5].  The pronunciation of this name followed
the same shifts as the first syllables of <A/eda/n>.  Early in the Middle
Ages it rhymed with <writhe>.  It changed to \ADH\ around 1000 and \EHDH\
by the 12th century.  Around 1200, about when the spelling changed, the
pronunciation of <dh> shifted to \GH\.  From that point, the Irish
pronunciation of the name shifted from \EHGH\ to \AYGH\ to \AY\.  In
Scotland, it was \EHGH\, then \#GH\, and in some dialects became \#\ by the
end of our period.

For more information about medieval Scottish Gaelic names and for a
selection of other given names you might consider, you can read these
articles 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 brief letter has been useful.  Please write us again if you
have any questions.  I was assisted in researching and writing this letter
by Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, and Effrick nin Kenneoch.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  16 Feb 1999


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References

[1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_,
3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
  
[2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and
History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Aidan, Aed,
Aodh. 
  
[3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The
Lilliput Press, 1990).
  
[4] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_
(Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation).

[5] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "A Simple Guide to
Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Names", (WWW: Privately
published, 18 June 1997).
http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.html