ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2109 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2109 ************************************ 22 Sep 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an Irish Gaelic woman living in our period. This letter is a brief answer to your question. We think your suspicion is correct: is a modern name. As you noted, it appears to derive from the masculine name , which was itself anglicized as [1]. We found no evidence that a feminine form of this name existed before modern times. Our best guess is that was constructed from by applying the common English feminine ending <-a>. Note that <-a> is not a feminine ending in Gaelic. We have several articles about Gaelic feminine names on the web; you can find them from this page: http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/qceltic.shtml Note that not all the articles listed on this page deal with Gaelic names. We particularly recommend: Quick and Easy Gaelic Names http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ Dated Names Found in O Corrain & Maguire's Irish Names http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/ocm/ Early Irish Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/obrien/ Women's Names in the Annals of Connacht: 1224-1544 http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsConnacht/women.html 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 Mari neyn Bryan and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 22 Sep 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Catha/ir.