ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1621
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1621
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19 Apr 1999
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Shamus of the Western Isles> is an appropriate name for
an Irishman in our period.  This letter is a brief answer to your question.

If your aim is to find documentation for a name so that you can register it
with the SCA College of Arms, we may or may not be able to help you.
Documenting submissions isn't our focus: We want to help you to choose and
use a name that fits the historical culture you are re-creating.  Our
research can sometimes be used to support submissions to the College of
Arms, but that it not our goal and our results are often incompatible with
the College's needs.  If your main goal is to register a particular name,
then we may not be able to help you.

<Shamus> is a modern English spelling of the Gaelic name <Se/amas> or
<Se/amus>.  That name was a 13th century Gaelic adaptation of the Norman
<James>, and was common in Ireland from the 14th century onward.  The slash
represents an accent on the preceding letter.  The name is pronounced
\SHAY-m@s\, where the \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the 'a' in
<about> or <sofa> [1].

Period Gaels only rarely used surnames based on the places where they
lived, and most of the examples we've seen are noble or religious titles.
The Western Isles are in Scotland, not Ireland; and in Scotland the epithet
"of the Isles" was used by very close relatives of the rulers of those
islands who were known as the "Lords of the Isles".  We did find two Irish
saints whose surnames meant "of the Islands", <Dachua Aileoin> and <Mochua
Aileni> [3], and a man apparently known as <Eogan na hInnsi> "Eogan of the
Island" [4], but this seems to be a very atypical usage.  We recommend that
you choose another surname.

In late-period Irish Gaelic society, a man was generally identified as his
father's son.  Se/amus the son of Diarmaid mac Domhnaill would have been
called <Se/amus mac Diarmada>.  If he were a member of the clan O/
Conchobhair (modern O Connor), he might also have been called <Se/amus O/
Conchobhair> [2].  You can find more information on period Irish names on
the web.  Two good starting points are:

  Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames
    http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/

and:

  http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/qceltic.html


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 Talan Gwynek, Teceangl Bach, Margaret Makafee, Effrick neyn Kenneoch,
and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  19 Apr 1999


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References

[1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The
Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Se/amas.

[2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Names and
Naming Practices in the Red Book of Ormond", in Known World Heraldic
Symposium Proceedings, Tir Ysgithir, 1998 (SCA, Inc.).

[3] O/ Riain, Pa/draig, ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae_
(Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1985), pp. 79, 147.

[4] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on
Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983).