ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1723 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1723 ************************************ 8 May 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an Irish woman born in 1250 of a native Irish father and a Norman mother. Here's what we've found. Unfortunately, this name is not appropriate for your period. We'll explain the problems in detail and suggest a couple of alternatives. is an English name. The name was very popular among the Anglo-Normans, but this particular spelling wasn't used in English until the 16th century. The typical 13th century Anglo-Norman spelling was or , though and were also used [1, 2, 3]. All these spellings were pronounced \KAHT-@-REE-n@\, where \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the in . This name was adopted into Irish Gaelic soon after the Norman settlement in the 12th century. In Gaelic, it was spelled , pronounced slightly differently from the Norman name: \KAHTCH-@-REE-n@\ [4]. The slash in the name represents an accent on the previous letter. is an Irish Gaelic clan name [7]. A male member of that clan might have been known as . A female clan member would have been called , which literally means "Caiteri/ona daughter of O/ Su/ileabha/in". is the Gaelic word for "daughter", and is the possessive form of as it appears in a woman's name [5]. The change from to represents a softening of the \S\ sound that is required by Gaelic grammar. This name would have been pronounced \KAHT-@-REE-n@ EEN-yen ee HOO-ly@-vahn\. You can find a more complete discussion of Gaelic name construction in this article on the web: Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ Gaelic and English spellings of names were not mixed together. It's quite common for Societyfolk to choose their names to indicate mixed ancestry by choosing one element from each language. Unfortunately, that just isn't how names worked in the Middle Ages. In most medieval European cultures, only a person's first name was given at birth. Her surname was a way to identify her further, and over her lifetime she might be identified by many different "bynames" in different circumstances. Which byname someone used on any particular occasion depended on the context. Thus, when a Gaelic speaker needed to identify her, he'd do it entirely in Gaelic and use a standard Gaelic name construction; while an English speaker would use an English name. Her name could have been recorded in either language, but it would have been written entirely in one language at a time. The key here is that the language and structure of your name depends on who is naming you. For example: A 13th century woman born in an Irish-speaking household to an Irish father called could have been named . She could have been known as "Caiteri/ona daughter of Uilliam" or . If her father had dealings with the Normans, they might have known him as , using the Norman form of his first name and identifying him, in Norman fashion, by the name of the lands he ruled. If his daughter moved in Norman circles, they might call her "Caterine, Willelm's daughter" or . In the 14th century, the English might have simply transliterated her Gaelic name. For example, we have found the name in 14th century English records in Ireland, an English rendering of the Gaelic name [6]. Unfortunately, we don't know how the English might have rendered in period, and we're not sure that this sort of transliterated name was used as early as the mid 13th century. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Walraven van Nijmegen, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Blaise de Cormeilles. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 8 May 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). [2] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/reaney/ [3] Talan Gwynek, "Given Names from Early 13th Century England" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/eng13/ [4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Caiteri/ona. [5] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames (2nd Edition)", (WWW: Privately published, 20 Aug 1998). http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ [6] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century Irish Names and Naming Practices" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/lateirish/ [7] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation).