ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1700 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1700 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 5 Jul 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help creating a late-period Irish feminine name with or as your given name and or as your father's name. You also wanted to use the clan bynames or . Here is the information we have found. is the earlier spelling of the saint's name, which was spelled after 1200. This name did not come into normal use in Gaelic as a personal name until after our period. In our period, names of major saints were not given to children in Gaelic; they were considered too holy for normal use. Instead, children were often named "servant of" or "devotee of" a saint. "devotee of Brigit" was a common early-medieval Irish woman's name. By your period, it was spelled or [1] and was pronounced \m#l VREE-djeh\. \#\ represents a vowel that doesn't occur in English, similar to the 'u' in [3]. The slash in the name represents an accent over the preceeding letter. was the name of the daughter of a king in early Irish legend. We found no evidence that it was used in your period, and only shaky evidence that it was used by real people even in the early Middle Ages. We suggest you consider a different name. If you want a name starting with 'C', you might consider these, all reasonably appropriate for your period [1]: Caitri/ona \kah-TREE-@-n@\ Caoilfhionn \KEEL-in~\ Caointighearn \K#N-chee-yehrn\ Cai/reach \KEER-yahkh\ Ciar \KEE-ar\ Ciarnait \KEE-ar-nitch\ Comnait \KOOM-nitch\, the OO as in "book" \@\ represents the schwa sound of the 'a' in . \n~\ represents the sound of n-tilde in Spanish words like , or of the in French . appears to be a partially anglicized spelling of a very common Gaelic man's name that was spelled in your period. was fairly common name in early Ireland [1]. We are not sure if it was used in later-period, but we believe that it might have been. Ciar daughter of Diarmaid mac Conaill could have been called , pronounced \KEE-ar IN-yen DEER-m@-d@\. The changes in the spelling of the father's name are required by Gaelic grammar; you can find a discussion of the grammar of Gaelic women's names in this article on the web: Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae' http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/obrien/ Similarly, Ciar daughter of Donnghal mac Aodha could have been known as \KEE-ar IN-yen DOHN-gh@-lih\. \gh\ represents another non-English sound. It is the voiced version of the raspy sound in the Scottish word or German . Neither nor is a clan name; both are early-medieval spellings of masculine given names. But both were the roots of clan names that are excellent choices for your period. , more commonly spelled in early medieval Gaelic and later in period, is the root of the clan name . This clan name was common throughout Ireland by the end of the 16th century [1, 2]. became the late medieval name , and produced the clan name , which was borne by several distinct families in different parts of Ireland. It is the source of the modern surname [1, 2]. and are masculine forms of the clan names; a woman would use a different form to indicate her clan membership. Maolbhri/ghde, daughter of Diarmaid O/ Maonaigh could have been called or . The phrase , which literally means "daughter of O/ Maonaigh", was pronounced something like \IN-yen ee VAY-nee\ or \IN-yen ee VWEE-nee\ in the early part of your period. By the end of your period, it was pronounced \NEE VAY-nee\ or \NEE VWEE-nee\. Similarly, was pronounced \IN-yen ee VUR-r@-ghee\ in the early part of your period, \NEE VUR-r@-ghee\ at the end. You can find a more detailed discussion of the construction of period Gaelic women's names on the web: Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ 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 Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Aryanhwy merch Catmael & Arval Benicoeur 5 Jul 1999 ----------------------------------------- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [2] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.nn. O/ Maonaigh, O/ Muireadhaigh. [3] More precisely, \#\ is the sound made by shaping your lips to say the vowel in and then saying instead. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in 'n', like , the letters 'D' and 'T' do not lenite. Correction, Mar 2005, Arval: We stated that was the root of the modern name . That is incorrect and has been deleted and replaced with the correct associated with the modern surname . See [1] and [2]. Annotation, Aryanhwy, 23 October 2006: Later research on names used by women, specifically , which supercedes the research in this letter can be found in Academy of S. Gabriel Report #2407, http://www.s-gabriel.org/2407