ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1850 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1850 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 8 Dec 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an authentic 15th or early 16th century Irish feminine name. You also wanted to know if is appropriate, or if it should be . Here is a quick letter with the information we have found. was an extremely rare name before the 17th century; it was considered too holy by the Gaels to be used by people. (The slash represents an accent over the previous letter.) We have found a couple of examples of it used in the 16th century, though, so we believe it would be a plausible name for the later end of your period. [1] is a surname derived from , a pet form of . was found in Ireland as early as the 13th century, and we have examples of from the same period on. [1,2] However, for this surname to be appropriate for a woman, some changes need to be made. literally means "son of Pa/iti/n," and since women cannot be sons, they would not use this form. The correct form for your period meaning "daughter of Pa/iti/n" would be . It is pronounced \EEN-y@n FAH-djayn\, where the \@\ represents the initial vowel sound in the word . , meaning "Ma/ire, daughter of Pa/iti/n," would be a plausible later period Irish woman's name. 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, Juliana de Luna, Antonio Miguel de Santos Borja, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Isfael ap Briafael. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael December 8, 1999 --------------------------------------- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.n. Maire [2] _Annals of Ulster_ http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/ Accessed 03Dec99