ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1776 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1776 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 9 Oct 1999 [See also the followup report 2103] Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You were interested in knowing the Oghamic forms of the Irish feminine names , , and . You also asked how they would be combined with the masculine Ogham names , , and to create an authentic name. Here is the information we have found. Currently, the member of the Academy who is most knowledgable in Oghamic names is unavailable for commentary; however, we have been able to put together a little bit of information on the names you asked about. Very few feminine names appear in Ogham inscriptions. So far as we know, the names that interest you are not among them, so we can only try to extrapolate backwards from the Old Irish forms. We have made some preliminary attempts at such reconstruction, but they should be treated as no more than somewhat educated guesses. * Indecht This would perhaps be or . * Mugain This would probably be either or . * Sciath This appears to be identical with the word for 'shield,' which in Oghamic Irish would probably have been or [2,3]. This is a masculine noun, however, and we are somewhat doubtful that it would have been used in just that form as a feminine name. Unfortunately, we have no idea how it might have been feminized. The most common way to form an Irish name is to be known as your father's daughter, and this seems to have been true of Oghamic Irish as well. The Oghamic Irish word for 'daughter' is attested as . [1] To complete the name, would be followed by the father's name in the genitive form. The three names you mentioned, , , and , are already in their genitive forms. Please note the spelling of the last of these-- appears to be a typo, and is the correct spelling. If you're interested in more information, please feel free to write back in a few months and hopefully we'll be able to give you a more detailed answer. 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, Arval Benicoeur, and Hartmann Rogge. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael October 9, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1] McManus, Damian, "A Guide to Ogam" (Maynooth: An Sagart, 1991). [2] Macbain, Alexander, _Etymological Dictionary of Scottish-Gaelic_, 2nd ed. (Orig. publ 1907(?); reprint New York: Hippocrene, 1998) [3] Thurneysen, Rudolf, _A Grammar of Old Irish_, trans. by D.A. Binchy & Osborn Bergin (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1975).