ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1746 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1746 ************************************ 30 Jun 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information on the 15th or 16th century Scottish masculine name or and the feminine , , or . Here is what we have found. 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. and are Scots or English variant spellings of the masculine name . They are recorded in the 14th century and may have been available in your period [1]. In that period, scribes often used to represent the consonant , in imitation of classical Latin. The Scots sources we have available from the first half of the 16th century spell the name and [4]. The name was pronounced \DJEH-m@ss\ in your period, with two syllables, the second syllable is pronounced as in . or is a Gaelic feminine name. Very few records were written in Gaelic in period Scotland, so most of the evidence we have of Scottish Gaelic names is indirect, from Scots or Latin documents. appears in a 16th century Scots document as . We haven't found a period example of the Gaelic spelling; we've reconstructed it from post-period sources and our knowledge of late-period Gaelic [2, 3]. In your period, the name was pronounced \BAY-@k\ or \BAY-h@k\. For more information about Scottish names of your period, we recommend the article "Scottish Names 101", available on the web at http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/scotnames101.html. 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 Affrick neyn Kenneoch. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 30 Jun 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Symon Freser of Lovat, "13th & 14th Century Scottish Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/scottish14/ [2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Beathag. [3] Arval Benicoeur, "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/arval/scotgaelfem/ [4] The manuscript Aberdeen Council Registers, Volumes 8 - 20 (1501-1551), in the Aberdeen City Archives.