ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1628 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1628 ************************************ 11 May 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an 11th century Scottish Gaelic woman, and whether she might be known as when traveling abroad. Here is what we have found. As we wrote in our last letter to you [1], was a common early medieval Irish woman's name and very likely also common among Scottish Gaels. It was pronounced roughly \mull VREE-djeh\, where \mull\ rhymes with [2]. The slash is the name represents an accent over the preceding letter. We have found an example of in a Latin form of a Scottish man's name recorded in in 1153-65, [3]. The byname meant "from the area known as Alba". Before 1300, meant the area of modern-day Scotland between the rivers Forth and Spey, and Drumalban [4]; later in period, was used to describe all of the kingdom of Scotland. The byname is grammatically correct for a woman, too, so as far as we know, is a fine name for a Scottish Gaelic woman living outside of Alba. Such surnames are much more commonly used for someone who has moved away from her home, for the simple reason that they don't have much identification value at home. Your other byname, , is just the type of name that would have been most common in your period. Unfortunately, we believe did not exist in 11th century Gaelic. It is a Gaelic adaptation of , which is a Scots nickname for . The earliest example we find of is a man 1370; the earliest Gaelic examples are 16th century. We do find an earlier Gaelic example of , c.1160, so you might consider using that name in your patronymic [5]. is spelled the same in Gaelic, but in your name is would be . is the possessive form of , which is required by Gaelic grammar so that the phrase means "Adam's daughter". The patronymic byname was pronounced \EEN-yen AHDH-@v\. The symbol \@\ represents the sound of the 'a' in . It would be quite authentic for a woman in your period to be known as at home and as when traveling abroad. In one of your letters, you suggested that you were considering using in your formal name, but being generally known as . There are two problems with this approach. First, was a different name from , though it was related. Non-Gaelic scribes often recorded names like this one with just the saint's name -- becoming or becoming -- but we have no evidence that these abbreviations were used in Gaelic. The Gaels felt that the names of important saints were too holy for normal use, so we believe it is unlikely that they would have used this sort of abbreviation. The second problem is that the name is extremely unlikely to have existed in your period. It is an English adaptation of that first appeared in the 14th century [6] and was later adopted back into Gaelic. Therefore, we believe it is not impossible that a Gaelic woman named might have been called by English speakers in the 14th century or later, but not in the 11th century and not by Gaelic speakers. We should also note that the English name was pronounced \BREED-@\, not like the modern word . We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Teceangl Bach, and Effrick neyn Kenneoch. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 11 May 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Academy of Saint Gabriel report 1541 [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Brigit. [3] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Gilmore. [4] Drumalban is a ridge running roughly north to south from Cape Wrath down to Loch Lomond. [5] Black s.nn. Addie, Addison, Macadam, Macadie. [6] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Bridget.