ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1691 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1691 ************************************ 7 Apr 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Scottish Gaelic woman in the 14th to 16th centuries. This letter is a brief answer to your question. Starting in the late 14th century, there were two main languages spoken in Scotland: Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands, and Scots, spoken in the Lowlands, including the royal court and towns. Gaelic is the same language spoken in Ireland at this time; Scots is closely related to contemporary English. Names were formed quite differently in the two languages, and the two styles of naming did not mix. Therefore, the culture you choose for your persona will determine how your name should be constructed. is a fine 16th century Scots (Lowland) name, but it is not a Gaelic name. We've found Lowland examples of in 1529 and 1586, and one of in 1408 [1]. is the standard modern spelling of a name that appears in many forms in Scots records of your period [2]: Robert Wallays c.1334,1336 Walays, 1369 John Walays, 1372 Walas, 1403 Walace, 1432 Sir John Wales, 1444 Walles, 1487 Vallas and Valles, 1497 Wallas, 1497 Wallis, 1518 Wallass, 1531 Valace, 1589 Vallace, 1560 We didn't find an example of , but it is certainly a reasonable extrapolation from this data. Neither nor is a Gaelic name. If you would prefer to choose a Scottish Gaelic name, you can find some information on that subject on the web. Scottish Names 101 http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/scotnames101.html 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/ Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/scotgaelfem/ I should warn you that we have found only a few Scottish Gaelic women's names in period records. Few documents were written in Gaelic in period Scotland, and women's names are less common than men's in most period documents. As a result, we only have solid evidence for a handful of names, which at listed in the last of the articles listed above. We believe that a most of the common Gaelic given names used Ireland were also used, at least occasionally, in the Highlands. In particular, the name was common in Ireland in your period and may also have been used in Scotland. It isn't the same name as , but it is pronounced rather similarly -- \AHN-yeh\ -- and may well have been popularly associated with [1]. The slash in the name represents an accent on the . 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 Maridonna di Benvenuto and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 7 Apr 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Talan Gwynek, "A List of Feminine Personal Names found in Scottish Records" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996). may be a variant of rather than . http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/scottishfem/ [2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Wallace. [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990).