ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1773 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1773 ************************************ 21 Jul 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether the name was used in Ireland in the 16th century. Here is what we found. Although we didn't find a reference for it, we are sure that is a modern English form of the Gaelic , meaning "son of Donnchadh." There were several forms of this name in Gaelic, and each Gaelic form was spelled in a variety of ways in English. One of the Gaelic forms is , pronounced \mahk DOHN-khee\. \kh\ represents the raspy sound of the in or in the German word . This name was recorded in 16th-century English as , , and [1]. Another Gaelic form is , which was pronounced \mahk GHOHN-khee\. \GH\ is the voiced version of the \kh\ sound. When English speakers transcribed this name, they either recorded \GH\ as , or failed to hear it at all and duplicated the \k\ sound from to the second word [2]. The name might have appeared in 16th century English records as , , or . The modern evolved from a source like these. Thus, while the spelling wasn't used in the 16th century, other forms of the name were used in that period. Which one you use depends on the language you're using. In Gaelic, it is . In English, it could be . In Gaelic, the name means "son of Donnchadh", and it would have been used literally in our period. That is to say, the only person who would have been called in period is a Gaelic man whose father was named . If you're interested in incorporating some form of this name into a name appropriate for period Ireland, you can find some guidance in articles in our Medieval Names archive. We particularly recommend Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames, available at [http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/]. We hope this letter has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. We were assisted in preparing this letter by Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Alan Fairfax & Arval Benicoeur 21 Jul 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. Mac Dhonnchadha. [2] The duplication of the \k\ sound also occurred when the patronym began with a vowel, like , which derives from . Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Mackay