ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1977 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1977 ************************************ 1 Mar 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 16th century Irishman living in Scotland, and whether he might have used the arms "Per pale azure and argent, two wolves combattant collared and chained together, all charges counter-changed". This letter is a brief answer to your question. The elements of your name are fine for your period, but at the time were spelled slightly differently. We're not sure they would have been used together in a single name. Gaelic spelling underwent a significant change around 1200. The name spelled in the early Middle Ages, for example, was spelled later [1]. In your period, it was pronounced \DOHV-n@l\. \@\ represents the schwa sound of the in . (That's actually a significant simplification of the pronunciation [2].) could have been used either as a clan name or as a true patronymic meaning "son of the Bard" [3]. A true patronymic is one that actually identifies the person's father, i.e. it means that _your_ father was a bard, not just any ancestor. It was pronounced \MAHK @(n) W&RD\. The symbol \(n)\ indicates that the was only lightly pronounced and probably silent in informal speech. \&\ represents the sound of the in . was a fairly rare clan name from Thomond [3]. It was pronounced \o FAIL-(@)-khee\. \kh\ is the rasping sound of the in Scottish or German . represents an 'O' with an acute accent mark. Either or would be fine names for your period. We think it's unlikely that both surnames would have been used together. If your father were a poet and a member of the clan, then you might have used both names in different circumstances. Arms were not particularly common among Gaels in either Ireland or Scotland in your period. Some Irish Gaelic chieftains used arms as early as the 14th century and more in the 16th. In Gaelic Scotland, use of arms was reserved to a few chieftains and their immediate families [4, 5]. Arms were quite common in the Scots-speaking Lowlands and among the Anglo-Irish, so whether or not your persona would have used arms depends on the cultural details you choose. The particular design you've chosen is not entirely implausible, but isn't typical of Scottish or Irish armory. We have a very good survey of late-period Lowland Scots heraldry, and we believe Irish heraldic style was similar. In this study, a pair of charges counterchanged across a two-part divided field was very rare, and a pair of animals combattant was also rare (it is a motif grossly overused in SCA heraldry) [6]. Collaring and chaining wolves strikes us as particularly unlikely: Those accoutrements seem to have been used in period heraldry as the distinguishing feature of a dog vs. a wolf. That is to say, a canine-shaped beast with a collar was understood to be a dog; without a collar, it was a wolf [7]. None of these elements was unknown in the heraldry of the British Isles, but their combination creates a design that we think is historically unlikely. If you'd like our help designing arms more typical of your culture, please write us again. 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 Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, Zenobia Naphtali, Amant le Marinier, Blaise de Cormeilles, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Isfael ap Briafael, and Giles Leabrook. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 29 Feb 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Domnall. [2] More precisely, the first syllable is \DOBH~\, where \BH\ represents the Spanish b/v sound, made by forming the lips for \b\ but relaxing them to let the air pass through while the vocal cords are vibrating. In other words, it's a sort of \v\ sound made with the upper and lower lips rather than with the upper teeth and lower lips. The tilde following indicates nasalization of the sound: the airstream is simultaneously allowed to exit through the nose. [3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. O/ Faolchaidh, Mac an Bhaird. [4] Campbell of Airds, Alastair, Unicorn Pursuivant of Arms, "A Closer Look at West Highland Heraldry", _The Double Tressure_ (#19). [5] "When did the Irish Chiefs Adopt Heraldry?", John J FitzPatrick Kennedy, Genealogica and Heraldica ed Auguste Vachon, Claire Boudreau, David Cogne/, University of Ottawa Press, 1998, ISBN 0-7766-0472-4. [6] Schweitzer, Leslie A., and David Hunter of Montlaw, "Late Medieval Scottish Heraldic Design", Proceedings of the XXIII International Conference of Genealogy and Heraldry Sciences, 1998. [7] Pastoureau, Michel, _Traite/ d'He/raldique_, 2nd ed. (Paris: grands manuels Picard, 1993).