ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1714
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1714
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15 Jun 1999
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Iosobail gille Tailliour> is an appropriate name for a
Scottish Gaelic woman at any time in our period.  Here is what we have
found.

<Iosobail> is a fine choice for the last couple centuries of our period.
It is a Gaelic adaptation of the Norman name <Isobel>, so it couldn't have
been used in Scotland before the Norman settlement of the 12th century.
However, the transfer of names into Gaelic culture progressed slowly, and
we haven't seen evidence of <Iosobail> before the 15th century.  The name
was pronounced \EES-@-bel\, where \@\ represents the schwa sound of the <a>
in <about> [1].

<Gille> is a masculine word meaning "boy, lad, young man" and in some
contexts "servant".  In medieval Gaelic, it was compounded with saint's
names to form masculine given names like <Gille Pha/draig> "servant of
[St.] Patrick" [3].  It was not used to form women's given names, nor to
form surnames of any kind.

Unfortunately, <Tailliour> is not a Gaelic name.  It is Scots, a form of
<Taylor>.  Scots, a language closely related to English, was spoken in the
Scottish Lowlands in the last three centuries of our period.  Scots and
Gaelic naming practices were quite different in our period, and the two
languages were not mixed together.  We can suggest Scots name and Gaelic
names, but a mixture of the two languages was not used in period.

We can suggest an alternative that might appeal to you.  The modern surname
<Macintaylor> is an English spelling of the Gaelic <mac an Tailleir> "son
of the tailor" [2].  The feminine form of this Gaelic name would have been
<inghean an Tailleir>.  <Iosobail inghean an Tailleir> "Iosobail daughter
of the tailor" would be a good late-period Scottish Gaelic name.  It would
have been pronounced \EES-@-bel NEE-y@n @n TAHL-y@r\.

Another possibility is a Scots name.  <Isobel Tailliour> is a fine late
16th century Scots name, appropriate for a woman living in the Lowlands in
that period.  


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 and Effrick neyn
Kenneoch.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  15 Jun 1999


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References

[1] Arval Benicoeur, "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" (WWW:
J. Mittleman, 1998). 
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/arval/scotgaelfem/

[2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and
History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Taylor,
Macintaylor.

[3] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on
Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983),
s.v. gille.