ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1680 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1680 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 25 Apr 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if the masculine name was used in Ireland in the 14th century. Here is the information we have found. In the 12th century, we found 10 people named , which is pronounced \EH-verr\. [1] (The slash represents an accent over the previous letter.) It also occurs in the later Middle Ages, in the form . [2] It is a fine choice for an Irishman's name. A 14th century Irishman was normally known not only by his given name but also by a patronymic byname (nickname) identifying him as his father's son. A man named who was the son of a man named , for instance, would have been called 'E/ber son of A/ed'. (Changing to is roughly like changing the English name to : it puts the father's name in the genitive (possessive) case). You can find a list of early Irish masculine names in the article '100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland', which is available on the Web at: http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100/ The first column gives the name as it would be used in the subject of a sentence (i.e., in the nominative case). The third column gives the genitive case of the name. To form a patronymic from one of these names, just place the genitive form after the word 'son' as in the example . Any of these names (and especially the most common ones) would be suitable. If you have any questions about this or about the pronunciation of any of these names, please write us again. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael Caermyrdin --------------------------------------- References: [1] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976). [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990).