ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1599 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1599 ************************************ 14 Apr 1999 From: Jodi McMaster Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the name , or is an authentic name for an Irishwoman living before 700. is, as you state, a name with the meaning 'shadowy, ghostly, frightening'. (The "/" indicates an accent over the preceding vowel.) is the name of an otherworldly female warrior in the legends of Cu/chulainn and Finn. In the legends, she is clearly supernatural, and we found no evidence that the name was ever used by real people. [1] The name appears in an early Irish genealogy, so it was presumably used by a real person before the early 12th century. [2] was the name of an Irish goddess. The name appears elsewhere in Irish legend and in a catalogue of early saints, but this is questionable evidence that it was ever actually used by real people [1]. Among these three choices, we recommend as the best choice, and only for a early medieval Irishwoman. It is pronounced \SKAHTH-dairk\. If you are going to use an Irish given name, you will probably want to choose a byname to go with it. Irishwomen in your period were usually identified as their father's daughters. For example, Sca/thdercc daughter of Cormac would have been called . You can find a list of common Irish men's names on the web: 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 Any of these would be a fine choice to complete your name. You want to use the genitive (possessive) form of the name after , and you may need to modify the spelling slightly (as in above) to get the grammatically correct form for a woman's byname. Feel free to write us to verify the form and pronunciation of your full name. Gaelic grammar and pronunciation are both tricky. We hope this letter has been helpful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Talan Gwynek and Arval d'Espas Nord contributed comments and/or research for this letter. For the Academy, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum __________________ References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" (WWW, Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996). http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html