ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1539 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1539 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 23 Feb 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our opinion of several names: , , , and . Here's what we've found. The Academy tries to help people to choose names to suit a particular time and place in history. Since you didn't tell us anything about the persona that goes with each name, we can't do that for you. We can only give you some general information about the names. Your household seems to be generally interested in Irish culture, so we'll give more specific information on Irish naming as it applies to each name. If you're interested in a different time or place than the ones we've discussed, please write us again with a more focussed question. Please note that the Academy is not the SCA College of Arms. We do not approve or reject names; we just evaluate them in terms of their authenticity. Our standards are different from those used by the College in judging submissions. In particular, we tend to apply a higher standard of authenticity, but we ignore other issues that concern the College. Therefore, if your goal is to discover if these names can be registered, our answer may not help you. Because you are obviously interested in Irish names, we'd like to recommend some articles on the subject: Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ Early Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 These three articles provide lists of Gaelic men's and women's names, and discussions of how to construct complete names that are appropriate for our period. Now to the specifics. We have never seen used as a first name. It is the name of a medieval kingdom in the eastern part of modern-day Spain, but place names were not normally used as a given names in our period. If you can tell us what culture your friend is interested in re-creating, we may be able to suggest some similar-sounding names. A surname meaning would be perfectly appropriate for some times and places in our period, but not all. Without knowing what culture this gentleman wants his name to fit, we really can't be more precise. However, we can say that it is _not_ a likely surname in Gaelic. In our period, Gaels were very rarely named by the places they inhabited. This stands in strong contrast to the English, who commonly used locative bynames. Both and , which are related only by a coincidence of similar spelling, are discussed in some detail in an article on our medieval names website. Concerning the Names Morgan, Morgana, Morgaine, Murghein, Morrigan, and the Like http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/problemnames/morgan.html is the name of a goddess in Irish mythology. As far as we know, it was not used by real people in period. is a late-period spelling of a name that was probably used occasionally in early medieval Ireland, pronounced \MEER-yeen~\. A better choice is the common early medieval name , pronounced roughly \MEER-yen\ [1, 7, 8]. The symbol \n~\ represents the sound of n-tilde in Spanish or in French . We don't recommend the name much later than the 10th century or so. (with an accent on the 'O') is a modern Irish Gaelic family or clan name. Late in our period, it could have been spelled , pronounced \oh KIN-nay-dich\ or \oh KIN-nay-dee\ [2, 3, 4]. In the first pronunciation, \ch\ represents the hissing sound in German . This is a masculine form; it literally means "male descendent of Cinne/di" and in practice meant "man of the O/ Cinne/idigh clan". A woman of that clan would have used the form . This phrase literally means "daughter of O/ Cinne/idigh" and was understood to mean "woman of the O/ Cinne/idigh clan." The changes in spelling are required by Gaelic grammar; you can find the details in "Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames." would be a fine late-period Irish name. The pronunciation depends on your period. Up to the 15th century or so, it would have been pronounced , pronounced \MEER-yeen~ IN-yen ee KHIN-nay-dikh\. Toward the end of our period, it would have been \MEER-yeen~ nee KHIN-nay-dee\. The last name, , is unfortunately very problematic. is a modern invention, a variant of that was popularized by the mid-20th century author . The most similar medieval name we could find is or , a name found in Yorkshire in the 16th century, possibly a variant of the much older name [5]. If that name and period interests your friend, we'd be happy to help her choose an appropriate surname to go with it. We are guessing that is intended as a descriptive nickname of some kind. In an appropriate spelling, something along those lines is barely possible in 13th or 14th century England [6]. However, it is not appropriate for 16th century England, when people used family surnames much as we do today, nor in Gaelic Ireland, where descriptive bynames were much simpler. You can find some examples of Gaelic descriptives in the article "Early Feminine Names..." mentioned above. We are also guessing that the referred to in this name is a woman, and that is intended to mean "daughter of Morgan". was a Welsh or Scottish masculine name in our period. We have found no evidence that was used in Ireland in our period, nor that it was used anywhere by women. You can find the details in our article "Concerning the Names Morgan,..." etc., mentioned above. Beyond this basic problem, there are a couple other difficulties with this part of the name. First, Gaels did not identify themselves as their mother's children. They used patronymics, which identified them as their father's children, but not metronymics. Second, the word (properly spelled with an accent) did not exist in Gaelic before 1600. It is a post-period innovation, a contraction of the phrase that we discussed earlier. So, not only wasn't it used in our period, it also doesn't mean "daughter". The Gaelic word used in names to mean "daughter" was , pronounced \IN-yen\. Before 1200 or so, it was spelled . There's a lot more we could write, but we'd have to guess what kinds of names interest you and your friends. Please write us again if you would like more information about any of these subjects or if anything here has been unclear. I was assisted in preparing this letter by Teceangl Bach, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Jehan fitz Gilbert. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 23 Feb 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Notes & References [1] Heather Rose Jones, "Concerning the Names Morgan, Morgana, Morgaine, Murghein, Morrigan, and the Like" (WWW: S. L. Krossa, 1996). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/problemnames/morgan.html [2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Kennedy. [3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). [4] 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 [5] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Jesmond, Ismene. [6] There are some Middle English descriptive bynames which combine a color adjective with the name of an animal: Blaklambe (1348), Gralamb (1270), Whitecou (1327), Whitehors (1331), Whitlamb (1346). However, note that all of these refer to a domestic animal, probably to an animal that the person owned. doesn't really fit that pattern. The examples were found in Jan Jo:nsjo:, Studies on Middle English Nicknames, v.1 Compounds (CWK Gleerup, date unknown). The spelling does not seem to be possible in period English. The use of 'y' for 'e' is fine -- the spelling is recorded in 1450 -- but the extra 'n' is not consistent with the historical spellings of the word. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973). [7] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. Muirenn, Muirgen. They mention an early abbot and say "As a female name, its most famous bearer is the half-pagan, half-christian Muirgen, also known as Li/ Ban... According to story, she lived for three hundred years in the waters of Lough Neagh..." This mermaid is not evidence that the name was used by real people; but the phrase "its most famous bearer" implies that the authors found other examples of the name. [8] O/ Riain, Pa/draig, ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1985). He lists an Irish priest named . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 3 Jan 2003, Arval: Re-wrote the paragraph on to eliminate the endorsement of it as a late-period name. Our only evidence of it is indirect in [7], and probably early medieval.