ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2111 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2111 ************************************ 2 Oct 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether we could help you find a period Gaelic name that sounds like \ka-nee-la\ and had a meaning related to "wolf". Here is what we have found. The most similar-sounding name we found is the Gaelic masculine name spelled in early medieval Gaelic, later, and pronounced roughly \KyENN-AY-l@\. \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the in or . The slash in the name represents an acute accent mark over the preceding letter. In modern Irish, the same name is spelled [1]. Note that this is a masculine name. The <-a> ending does not indicate a feminine name in Gaelic the way it very often does in English. The name derives from Old Irish roots that meant "wolf head", but it is a mistake to think of this as the meaning of the name. Names don't have meanings in the same way as other words, though they do have etymological origins. One doesn't expect a man called to be a twin just because the name derives from an Aramaic word for "twin"; his name is just an identifying label. We haven't found a Gaelic feminine name that derived from a root meaning "wolf". We did find a couple that sound somewhat similar to what you wanted. These are all early medieval names, probably not in use later than the year 1000. Condal \KOHN-n@l\ [3, 4] Conchenn \KOHN-khen\ [2] Congan \KOHNG-@n\ [2] Conna \KOHN-@\ [5] \kh\ represents the raspy sound in the Scottish word or the German . We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Mari neyn Brian, Maridonna Benvenuti, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Talan Gwynek, Amant le Marinier, Adelaide de Beaumont, Teceangl Bach, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Julie Stampnitzky. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 2 Oct 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Cenn Fa/elad. [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Early Irish Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/obrien/ [3] Annals of the Four Masters, v.1, M792.4. [4] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), U797.4. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/ [5] O'Corrain & Maguire, s.n. Conna.