ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1626 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1626 ************************************ 2 Apr 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Scotsman living between 1100 and 1250. 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. We have recently published an article about the name , which discusses its history in detail. You can find that article on the web: Concerning the Names Aidan, Ae/dha/n, Aodh, and the Like http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/problemnames/aidan.html Here's a quick summary of the relevant points: is a modern English spelling of the Gaelic name , as it was spelled before 1200, or , as it was spelled later. (The slash represents an accent on the preceding letter.) The spelling is impossible in period Gaelic. We have found examples of this name in Ireland up to the 10th century and among the Scottish Gaels in the 7th century. Because there were two important saints named , the name was occasionally used in other languages, including Welsh, Cornish, and Anglo-Saxon, in spellings appropriate to those languages. The spelling is found in an early medieval Welsh record [1], but we must stress that it is not possible in Gaelic: Welsh and Gaelic used very different, incompatible spelling systems. In the 12th century, the name was pronounced \EHDH-ahn\, with \DH\ representing the sound in . In the 13th century, the pronunciation shifted to \EHGH-ahn\, where \GH\ represents the voiced version of the raspy sound in Scottish or German . Note that the name was never pronounced \AID-ahn\. It is not impossible that the name , was used by Scottish Gaels in your husband's period; but since we have no evidence of the name in this period, we do not recommend it as good re-creation of 12th or 13th century Scottish naming. For more information about the name , including its pronunciation at various times in history, please read the article we mentioned above. For general information about period Scottish Gaelic names, we recommend these articles: A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Names http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.html Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 2 Apr 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [1] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "The First Thousand Years of British Names", (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). appears in the 8th-10th century Welsh "Book of Llandav". http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/british1000/