ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1569 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1569 ************************************ 1 Mar 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked when the given name was introduced into Scotland, specifically in the Isles, and how it appears in Gaelic. This letter is a brief answer to your question. Scotland in our period was home to several cultures and languages. In the 12th and 13th centuries, for example, the main languages were: * Norse, spoken in the far north and the western isles. * English, spoken mainly in the southeast. * Gaelic, spoken through much of the country. * Norman French, spoken by Norman settlers and their Scoto-Norman descendents, mostly in the south. >From the 14th century on, there were two main languages: Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands, and Scots, spoken in the Lowlands, including the royal court and towns. Gaelic is the same language spoken in Ireland in our period; Scots is closely related to contemporary English. Some names are found in only one language. Others spread through several languages. We're not sure whether Scottish Gaels used the name . In general, period Gaels avoided naming their children for important saints, instead using compounds like "servant of [saint] Michael" or "devotee of [saint] Michael" [3]. (The slash in the name represents an accent on the previous letter.) It isn't always easy to determine from surviving records which name was actually used because Gaelic was rarely used as a written language in period Scotland. Most documents were written in Latin or Scots, and names were routinely adapted to fit the language used. A name like would very often be recorded as , in some spelling. We are certain that was used in Gaelic Scotland as early as the 12th century and as late as the 15th. It is recorded in the 12th century one of the rare Gaelic documents as and , and in 1467 as [1, 2]. It may well have been used earlier and was very probably used through the end of our period. We also know that was used in Scoto-Norman culture by 1214, and that it was fairly common in Scots from the 15th century onward. The form seems to be the more common one in the Lowlands in the last couple centuries of our period [1, 4]. If you're interested in a Scots name, let us know and we can send you lots of examples of different spellings of this name. We do not have a clear example of the simple name used in Scottish Gaelic before 1600. The closest we've come is a man recorded in a Scots record as in 1465 [1]. This may be a Scots rendering of the Gaelic "Domhnall son of Little Mi/chea/l", but the underlying name might also have been . The best advice we can give you is that is not the best re-creation of a period Scottish Gaelic name. The compound is pronounced \GULL-a VEE-ch@l\, where \ch\ represents the hissy sound in German , \@\ is a schwa, like the last vowel in , and \GULL\ rhymes with . If the plain name had been used, it would have been spelled and pronounced \MEE-ch@l\. 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 1 Mar 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. MacMichael, Michalbegson, Michael, Michelson, Mitchell. The examples of are 1204-1211 and 1465. [2] 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 [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [4] The manuscript Aberdeen Council Registers, Volumes 8 - 20 (1501-1551), in the Aberdeen City Archives.