ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1868 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1868 ************************************ 9 Dec 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help choosing a name appropriate for an 8th to 12th century Irish woman that means "Medb the Brash", or "the Brusque", or "the Sharp-tongued". This letter is a brief answer to your question. is a fine choice for your period. It was a popular name throughout the Middle Ages, and this is the correct spelling for your period. It was pronounced \MEHV\ by the end of your period, and probably \MEHDHV\ at the beginning [1]. \DH\ represents the sound of in . As you learned from your own research, a woman in your period would almost always have been known as her father's daughter. She might also have been known by some other epithet, but in formal circumstances, she would have been identified by her patronymic byname. Medb, the daughter of Fergus mac Conaill, would have been called \MEHV EEN-yen AIR-ghoos-@\. The change from to and the change in pronunciation that makes the silent are required in a woman's name by Gaelic grammar. \gh\ represents a sound not used in English; it is the voiced version of the harsh sound in the Scottish word or the German . \@\ is a schwa, the sound of the in . If you want to choose a name for your father, you can find a list of appropriate names on the web: 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 You can write us, if you like, to get the correct spelling and pronunciation of your father's name as it would have been used in your name. Women of your culture sometimes used descriptive nicknames, but records from early medieval Ireland use them in only about 1% of names [2]. Here are the descriptive nicknames we've found in early Irish women's names [3]: Fhind fair Fholtchaem beautiful-hair Gabulfota long-legs Shithbacc long-crooked Threchi/chech three-breasted U/athach horrible, dreadful We've found a larger assortment of epithets in men's names; you can find a list of those in reference [3] on the web. Of those, the one that most closely matches the meanings you asked about is . It literally means "rough" but had figurative meanings that covered the qualities you have in mind [3]. The correct translation of "Medb the Rough" is , pronounced \MEHV GHAHRV\. You could combine the descriptive byname with a patronymic byname: . We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Maridonna di Benevenuto, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 9 Dec 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Medb. [2] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976). [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). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/obrien/