ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2005 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2005 ************************************ 20 Mar 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is a better name for a 11th-13th century Scottish Gaelic woman than the name you've been using, . This letter is a brief answer to your question. You've chosen a fine Gaelic name, but one that probably could not have existed until later in our period. We'll suggest a couple solutions to that problem. is a correct spelling of a Gaelic adaptation of . We've found evidence that it was used by Gaelic women in Ireland in the 14th-16th centuries and in Scotland in the 16th [1, 2, 3]. The slash in the name represents an acute accent on the preceding letter. We wouldn't be surprised to see the name in use among Scottish Gaels in the 14th century, but we can't recommend it as early as the 13th. In the 14th century, it was probably pronounced \MAR-ghrayt\, where \gh\ represents the rasping sound in Scottish or German . By the late 16th century, it was probably pronounced more like \MY-r@-r@t\. The symbol \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the in [6]. If you'd prefer a name that is known to have been used in your period, you might consider (pre-1200 spelling) or (post-1200), which we believe was used by Scottish Gaels until the end of our period, or , an extremely common name among Irish Gaels that was probably also used in Scotland [3, 4]. Your byname, , is a modern Gaelic spelling of a name that was early in your period, and after 1200 or so. is a Gaelic adaptation of ; in modern Gaelic it became [4, 5]. It was pronounced \IN-yen FAR-@-lahn~\ until about the 15th century, \NEE-yen FAR-@-lahn~\ later. \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the 'a' in . \n~\ represents the sound of in French or n-tilde in Spanish . Putting it together, is a fine name for a 16th century Scottish Gaelic woman, and probably a good choice for a 14th ot 15th century woman as well. For an earlier period, we recommend or as alternatives to . In Scotland in our period, Gaelic was rarely used as a written language. Most documents were in Latin or Scots, the language of the Lowlands after the late 14th century, distinct from Gaelic and closely related to contemporary English. Gaelic names were translated into English in various ways; the late-period name might have been recorded in Scots as , , or even [5]. It might have been written in Latin as . 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 Juliana de Luna, Mari nic Bryan, Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Julie Stampnitzky, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 20 Mar 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Women's Names in the Annals of Connacht: 1224-1544" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 2000). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/mari/AnnalsConnacht/ [2] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Dated Names Found in O/ Corra/in & Maguire's Irish Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/mari/ocm/ [3] Arval Benicoeur, "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/arval/scotgaelfem/ [4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. Mo/r, Parthala/n. [5] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Macfarlan, Bartholomew. [6] The later pronunciation is suggested by the spelling and that we found in Dwelly, Edward, _Faclair gaidhlig: A Gaelic Dictionary_ (Herne Bay [Eng.] E. Macdonald & co., 1902-[11]) and in Morgan, Peadar, _Ainmean Chloinne: Scottish Gaelic Names for Children_ (Scotland: Taigh na Teud Music Publishers, 1989).