ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1830 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1830 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: "Braddon Giles" 26 Dec 1999 Greetings from the Academy of St Gabriel! You asked for our assistance in forming an historically authentic Gaelic name for an Irish woman, in the period 1400-1600. The names that interested you were , and for your given name, or for your father's name and the descriptive bynames , and . Please note: throughout this letter, the "slash" represents an accent over the preceding letter. You also asked whether your name would be suitable in the region of the Pale, and about Scottish Gaelic or Breton equivalents of and . We weren't sure about one of the names you provided - . The closest Irish name we found was which was in use among the (O Kanes) of Ulster in the 16th century [1,2]. is pronounced \ROASH\, using one syllable. was pronounced \AY-deen~\, where the \n~\ is the sound of the final in the French . It is a name from early Irish legend, but was also the name of a saint in the royal family of Connacht and continued in use through the later Middle Ages. By your period it was spelled , and would be a fine name for your requirements. [2] is the name of the legendary daughter of Eochu Feidlech and sister of Medb and Uaithne [2]. It is in this context that the name appears in the list of Irish names where you probably found it [3]. The names of both of her sisters were used throughout the Middle Ages. However, we were unable to find firm evidence that was a name used by real people, so we do not recommend it as a good recreation for your period. As you have provided us with some choices for your father's name, you are probably aware that Irish women were nearly always known as their fathers' daughters. The word "daughter" was used to form women's names in the same way that "son" was used in men's names. There are some grammatical differences in the construction of women's names; we'll give the correct forms below. The word was pronounced \EEN-y@n\, where the \@\ is the first vowel sound in . We think that , along with , is an anglicisation of . While it is known as the name of 26 saints in early Irish history, it did not become popular as a secular name in the very early Middle Ages. However, 75 years ago it was still common in parts of Ireland, so we think it very likely that it was in use in your period. It was pronounced \KEE-@-r@n\. The form used after to form a patronymic is , pronounced \KHEE-@-rahn~\. The change in spelling from to and the change in pronunciation from \K\ to \KH\ are required in a woman's surname by Gaelic grammar. The first \@\ should be very short, and the \KH\ represents the raspy sound in Scottish or German . [2,4] was one of the most common names in Ireland in the early Middle Ages and continued in use to the early modern period. It would therefore be a fine name for your father. It was pronounced \KAH-h@l\. The form used after to form a patronymic was spelled and pronounced \KHAH-hahl~\. The \l~\ is like the in . [2] We have found the given name as a masculine diminutive of the adjective meaning 'little'. In your period the adjective was and would be a fine byname; in a woman's name, the same grammatical changes we discussed above require it to be pronounced \vyahg\. This should be one syllable, with the \Y\ as in , not as in . As a byname means "freckled" and could apply to anyone with freckles. By your period, the spelling had changed to and in a woman's name became , pronounced \vrahk\. or meant "beautiful hair", and came to be spelled in your period. As a woman's byname the word was spelled and pronounced \OHLT-khayv\. The last syllable rhymes with . This byname is also a good choice for you. To sum up, an excellent name for your period could be made by any combination of either or for your given name, or as your father's name, and an optional descriptive byname of either , , or . For example: Ro/is inghean Chathail ROASH EEN-y@n KHAH-hahl~ E/adaoin inghean Chiara/in AY-deen~ EEN-y@n KHEE-@-rahn~ Ro/is bheag inghean Chathail ROASH vyahg EEN-y@n KHAH-hahl~ Ro/is breac inghean Chiara/in ROASH vrahk EEN-y@n KHEE-@-rahn~ Ro/is fholtchaomh inghean Chathail ROASH OHLT-khayv EEN-y@n KHAH-hahl~ The Pale was an area around the city of Dublin that was becoming heavily influenced by the English during your period. As one of the most important trading centres in Ireland it was a mixing pot of different Irish clans, English immigrants and European traders. We have no reason to believe that any of your choices above would be unusual in the Pale at that time. Breton is not particularly closely related to Gaelic. Some names were shared between the two cultures, much as names were shared between any pair of western European languages; but naming customs in Breton were quite different from those in Gaelic. Scottish and Irish Gaelic were the same language in our period, but had some differing naming customs. If you have specific questions about names in either of these languages, please write us again. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write to 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 Juliana de Luna, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Arval d'Espas Nord, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Giles Leabrook. 26/ Dec /1999 __________________________________________________ Bibliography. [1] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan/ Kathleen O'Brien _Dated Names Found in O/ Corrain & Maguire's Irish Names_: Ro/is [16th C], p. 157, Ro/is. http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/mari/ocm/OCM-FemGivAlpha.html [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.nn. Ro/is, E/tai/n, Ciara/n, Cathal. [3] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" (WWW, Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996), E/tai/n, E/ile, Ciaran, Cathal, Brecc. http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/obrien/ [4] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). s.n. Ciara/n - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Annotated by Arval, 6 Apr 2001 In later research, we learned that the probably was not used in late-period Ireland. See report 2250.