ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1968 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1968 ************************************ 2 May 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the name is appropriate for an Irishman living between 1100 and 1600. As you note, the rare name was used in 665. [1] (The slash indicates an accent over the preceding letter.) We haven't found a later-period example. It may have fallen out of use by your period, so we can't recommend it as good re-creation for the last centuries of our period. Here are some alternatives, recorded in your period, that might appeal to you [2, 3]: Aille/n Ailill Aile/n Alinn If any of these appeals to you, let us know which ones and whether you're more interested in setting your persona before or after 1200, and we'll send you the pronunciation and spelling appropriate for your period. We've found many instances of the byname after 1100 [2, 3]. It literally means "male descendant of Fa/ela/n", and was used in medieval Ireland to mean "male member of clan O/ Fa/ela/in". Note that the word was written with an accent on the 'O', not an apostrophe after it. At various times in your period, it was also written , , , and , and abbreviated or <.h.> [3]. For the early part of your period, we recommend you use one of these forms when writing your name. After the 13th century or so, we would expect the name to be written . Before 1200 or so, it would be pronounced \oo-@ FEH-lahn~\, and later in period it would be \oh FAY-lahn~\. The symbol \@\ represents the sound of the in or , and \n~\ represents the sound of the in the French word . We hope this letter has been helpful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Maridonna Benvenuti, Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, Alan Fairfax, Margaret Makafee, and Effrick neyn Kenneoch contributed comments and/or research for this letter. For the Academy, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum and Arval Benicoeur 2 May 2000 __________________ References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Ailera/n. [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 [3] Cournane, Mavis, Vibeke Dijkman, Ivonne Tummers, ed., "Annala Connacht" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, College Road, Cork, Ireland., 1997, http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100011/; access date 14 Jan 2000).