ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1846 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1846 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 10 Nov 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if was an appropriate Irish woman's name. (The slashes represent accents over the previous letter). Here is a brief letter with what we've found. is a Gaelic adoption of the name , which was first introduced in England around 1200. Our first example of the name in Ireland is a woman who died in 1497, but because was popular in England, it is reasonable that was used in Ireland at an earlier date. [1] was a popular man's name in Ireland. However, this spelling is the earlier period spelling of the name; after c. 1200, when existed, the name was spelled . [1] Putting these two together to create a name meaning "Ailiono/ra, daughter of Faola/n," the correct result is . [2] This is pronounced \AHL-y@-NOH-r@ EEN-y@n AY-lahn~\, where \@\ represents the initial vowel sound in , and the \n~\ is the sound of \gn\ in French . The changes in spelling and pronunciation in to are requirements of Gaelic grammar. [3] We hope that this brief 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 Elsbeth Anne Roth, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, and Alan Fairfax. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael November 10, 1999 --------------------------------------- References & Notes: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.nn. Fa/ela/n, Ailiono/ra. [2] is the post c.1200 spelling of , meaning "daughter." [3] For more information on what these requirements are, we suggest you read the following article available in our library: "Quick & Easy Gaelic Bynames" http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynam es/index.html