ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2051
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2051
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6 Jul 2000
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You wanted to know if the name <Mermadak of Argile> would be appropriate
for a 13th century man living in Scotland, or if the name mixed Scots and
Gaelic elements.  Here is a brief letter with the information we have
found.

<Mermadak> is an anomalous spelling of the name of a northern English
knight mentioned in a late 14th century Scots poem [1].  Another manuscript
of the same poem spells the name <Marmeduk> [2].  In English sources from
your period, the same name is spelled <Marmaduc> 1217 & 1273, <Marmaducus>
1201-7, <Marmeduc> 1276, <Marmeduk> 1286, <Marmadoke> 1379 [4, 5, 6].  We
have not found any examples of Scots using this name.  In England, we've
seen it used only in Yorkshire, where it was fairly common [3].  It is not
impossible that it was also used in the Scottish Lowlands, but we can't
recommend it as the best re-creation.  If you'd like to consider a
different given name, you can find a selection of names appropriate to your
period in this article:

  13th & 14th Century Scottish Names
    http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/symonFreser/scottish14/

Note that the <Mermadak> listed in this article is the English knight we
mentioned above.  If you'd like to verify that a name from that article was
indeed used by the Scots, feel free to write us again; or if you want to do
your own research, you could double-check against the on-line edition of
the poem, reference [2], which was prepared from a different manuscript and
preserves somewhat older spellings of names.

The same Scots poem includes several variations of your surname, all of
which are correct for your period [1,2]:

  off Arghile
  of Argile
  of Argill
  Argyle
  Arghile

A name such as <Roger of Argile> or <Gilbert Argyle> would be a fine
choice for your period.  <Marmeduk of Argile> is plausible, but requires
speculating that the Yorkshire name <Marmeduk> was adopted by Scots
families living far to the north.

We hope that this brief 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 Effric
neyn Kennyeoch, Talan Gwynek, Barak Raz, and Maridonna Benvenuti.

For the Academy,
 Aryanhwy merch Catmael & Arval Benicoeur
 6 Jul 2000

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References:

[1] Symon Freser of Lovat, "13th & 14th Century Scottish Names" (WWW: J.
Mittleman, 1996) [URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/scottish14/].

[2] Barbour, John, _The Brus_, ed. Eleanor Johnston (c.1375; WWW: Scots
Teaching and Research Network, accessed 5 Apr 2000), books 9-11, 18.
http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/COMET/starn/poetry/brus/contents.htm

[3] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_,
3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Marmaduke.

[4] Withycombe, s.n. Marmaduke.

[5] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.n. Marmaduke.

[6] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Marmaduke.