ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1790 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1790 ************************************ 14 Oct 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether or is an appropriate name for a late 10th or 11th century Irishman. Here is what we have found. The name is found in early Irish legend. It may have been used by real people during the classical era, but we have found no evidence that it was used in the Middle Ages at all. It was not used as late as the 10th century. Your spelling is a mixture of spellings from two periods in the development of the Gaelic language. The oldest spelling is ; the modern spelling is . The slash in the name represents an accent on the preceding letter. In Irish legend, was a chieftain who shared the rule of Ireland with Conn. This was his nickname, in fact; he is also identified as "E/ogan the Great" and "E/ogan the Shining" [1, 2]. The phrase means "Nuadu's manservant or slave" [2]. A number of phrases like this one, perhaps originally used as literal descriptions, came to be used as given names in the classical era. Even though it's two words, the phrase was used as a single given name. It is therefore incorrect to insert between the two parts. ( is not a Gaelic word; perhaps it was just a typo.) Other examples found are [1]: Mug-Airtt "Artt's manservant" Mug-Corbb "Corbb's manservant" Mug-Do/et origin uncertain Mug-Roith "Roth's manservant" These names are found very early in Irish genealogies, and we cannot be sure that they were used by real, historical people. If you are interested in a name with the initial sound, you could consider . Several examples of it are recorded in the 9th-12th centuries [3]. It was pronounced \MOOGH-roan\, where \OO\ is as in and \roan\ rhymes with . \GH\ represents a should that doesn't occur in English. It is the voiced version of the rasping sound in or in the German . If you'd like to consider other names from your period, you can find a list on our website: 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 14 Oct 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976). [2] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.vv. ma/r, tai/dlech, Nu/adu. [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Mugro/n.