ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1541 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1541 ************************************ 15 Feb 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a woman from 11th century Scotland, specifically from the area around the Firth of Solway, the River Dee and the River Nith. This letter is a brief answer to your question. Several languages were spoken in your period in the area that is Scotland today. The major ones were: * Norse, spoken in the far north and the western Isles; * Gaelic, spoken through much of the country; and * Old English, spoken mainly in the southeast. The languages were very different and had different naming customs. There was some mixing of names from the different cultures, but most names were not adopted into all of the cultures. The area where you want to set your persona was Gaelic speaking, so we'll concentrate on that language. If you are interested in a name from one of the other languages, please write us again. did not come into use as a given name in Gaelic until after your period. In your period, names of major saints were not given to children in Gaelic; they were considered too holy for normal use. Instead, children were often named "servant of" or "devotee of" a saint. "devotee of Brigit" was a common early medieval Irish woman's name and probably also common in Scottish Gaelic. It was pronounced \mull VREE-djeh\, where \mull\ rhymes with [1]. The slash is the name represents an accent over the preceding letter. is actually a later-period spelling of this name. Gaelic spelling underwent a significant change around the year 1200. Earlier, the name was written . is a modern Gaelic spelling, probably a back-formation from the English adaptation, [2]. You may also be interested in the name , pronounced \BREE\, which was used in Ireland in your period and may also have been used in Scotland [1]. A Gaelic woman of your period would have been known as her father's daughter. Ma/el Brigte daughter of Fergus would have been called . The word means "daughter" and is pronounced \IN-yen\. The changes in spelling in the father's name are required by Gaelic grammar. You can find the grammatical details on the web in these articles: Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ 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 You can find a list of common Gaelic men's names on the web, too, which you can use to pick a name for your father. 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 Gaelic grammar and pronunciation can be tricky. If you write us once you've chosen your father's name, we'll be happy to fill in the details. 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 Eafric nin Kenyoch. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 15 Feb 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Brigit.