ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1659 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1659 ************************************ 15 Apr 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate first name for an Irishman living before 1500; otherwise, you asked if we could provide a name similar to . This letter is a brief answer to your question. is a modern English form of , a Gaelic man's name that was common in Ireland through much of our period and extremely common in the later centuries [1, 2]. was pronounced just like the first syllable in . If it appeals to you, it's an excellent name for the 13th century or later. We didn't find another Gaelic name more similar to . We couldn't find any information on , by the way. Our best guess is that it is the name of the Scottish river used as a given name, and that it probably doesn't date back much beyond the 20th century. An Irish Gael of your period would have been known primarily as his father's son. Tadhg son of Domhnall mac Aodha would have been called . For more information about Irish naming, you can read the article: 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 Walraven van Nijmegen and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 15 Apr 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Tadc. [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100