ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2120 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2120 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 06 Jan 2001 From: Judith Phillips Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us whether the given names (or any Gaelic borrowing of ), , and would be appropriate for a 15th century Scottish Highland woman. You also asked about bynames for a woman whose father's name was or . Here is the information we found. Starting in the late 14th century, there were two main languages spoken in Scotland: Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands, and Scots, spoken in the Lowlands, including the royal court and towns. Gaelic was the same language spoken in Ireland at this time; Scots was closely related to contemporary English. Names were formed quite differently in the two languages, and the two styles of naming did not mix. Therefore, the culture you choose for your persona will determine how your name should be constructed. Gaelic was rarely used as a written language in 15th century Scotland. Documents were written in Scots or Latin, so we'll also discuss some written forms in those languages. We have no example of any form of the name borrowed into Gaelic in period. is a particularly unlikely variant, since it violates normal Gaelic spelling conventions [1]. We do have an example of used in Fife, a Scots-speaking area, in 1584 [2]. Thus the name was used in late period Scotland, but as far as we know it was used only in Scots-language contexts. We believe that is a misreading of ; the long "s" used in the Irish typeface looks like a long-tailed "r." We have no evidence of as a period Gaelic name and suspect that it is a modern Gaelic borrowing of Scots/English . appears to be a modern form of , later spelled , an Irish Gaelic borrowing of Anglo-Norman [3]. We have found no period example of the spelling and suspect that it is strictly a modern form. The final <-a> would be very uncharacteristic of period Gaelic, and we think that it was added later to make the name sound more feminine to English speakers. We have no example of the name in period Scotland. There is a related Scottish Gaelic name, , a Gaelic borrowing of the Scots name (itself a diminutive of Norman or [4]). was pronounced \SHOH-n@tch\, where \@\ represents the sound of in or . Some form of was used in 15th century Scotland, although we cannot be certain of the period Gaelic spelling [5]. A 15th century Highland woman named would probably have been recorded as in Scots language documents and as in Latin documents. was pronounced \DJOH-n@t\. You wrote that you wish to form your byname following the example from "Quick and Easy Gaelic Names," where Dearbhorgaill who is the daughter of Mac Beatha mac Cormaic would be called . [6] You wished to form the byname or in this manner. Unfortunately, we do not believe that these are plausible Scottish Gaelic names. The construction arises in a woman's name when her father's name begins with . becomes when it is put into the genitive case and lenited, changes required by Gaelic grammar. (The genitive case is used to show possession, similar to changing to ; lenition is a "softening" of initial consonants in certain grammatical situations.) [6] In the example you cited, is an integral part of the father's given name . There are a very few Gaelic men's names that were formed in this fashion, most with allegorical meanings like "son of light." We have no examples of given names or that could have given rise to or in this fashion. In fact, the Logan family seems to derive its name from a place name in Ayrshire, so we doubt that is a plausible Gaelic name at all. [7] There are two other situations in which a man's name containing the element might give rise to a woman's byname containing the phrase . In Ireland, women's bynames sometimes referred to their grandfathers or other male ancestors. For example, Fionnghuala the daughter of Domhnall mac Aoidh might have been called or simply , "Fionnghuala daughter of mac Aoidh." There is an Irish given name [8], so an Irish woman Siobhan the daughter of Domhnall mac Leanna/in might have been called . However, as far as we know neither this naming style nor the name was used in Scotland. In Scotland, the daughter of a clan chief might be described by her father's chiefly title. [9] For example, was the chiefly title of the Campbells of Argyle [10]. Seonaid the daughter of who was chief of that clan might be called as well as . However, we know of no title that could have given rise to in this fashion and doubt that one could have existed, since we have found no example of the given name in Scotland. In addition, this kind of name may make a claim to noble rank that is contrary to Society custom. The modern surname is derived from the Gaelic byname . [11] If you are most interested in having an authentic Scottish Gaelic name, you might wish to consider . ( is the lenited version of .) A careful pronounciation of the full name would have been \SHOH-n@tch EEN-yen GHIL-l@ IN~-ayn~\; however, Scots language documentary forms suggest that the pronounciation of was closer to \gh@-LIN~-ayn~\ in historical practice. (Above, \GH\ is the voiced version of \kh\, the rasping "ch" sound in Scottish or German . To get \gh\, say \kh\ while vibrating your vocal cords. \GH\ is related to \kh\ as \g\ to \k\, \z\ to \s\, or \v\ to \f\. \N~\ is the sound of \gn\ in French or Italian or the n-tilde in Spanish .) We don't know what title was used by the chief of the MacLennan clan; it is possible that he was known simply as . (The chief's title was not necessarily the same as the name of the clan; the Campbells were known as in Gaelic, but as mentioned earlier their chief's title was . [10]) We believe that is a plausible name for a Scottish clan chief's daughter. (Pronunciation is the same as above, except that was pronounced \veek\, i.e., \SHOH-n@tch EEN-yen veek GHIL-l@ IN~-ayn~\ or \SHOH-n@tch EEN-yen veek gh@-LIN~-ayn~\ ). If you prefer to use the given name , we recommend you consider a Scots language name suitable for a Lowlander. The byname was adopted into Scots language usage; we have , pronounced \mahk-KLEN-ahn\, recorded in Fife in 1586 [11]. (Since 16th century Fife is considered to be Scots-speaking, we believe that this is probably the name of a Lowlander rather than a Scots language recording of a Gaelic name.) Additional 15th and 16th century forms we found are [11]: Makynnane, 1480 M'Lenane, 1483 M'Clynyne, 1529 M'Clanan, 1592 Makclennand, 1594 By the 16th century, Lowland surnames were fixed and inherited, as they are in modern English speaking countries, so Susanna the daughter of Johne M'Clenane was simply called [12] In summary, we can recommend no Gaelic form of . We cannot recommend as a Gaelic name, but the related name is reasonable for a 15th century Scottish Gaelic woman. We cannot recommend , but is a fine 15th century Scottish Gaelic name and is plausible. would be an excellent 16th century Lowland name. I hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you will not hesitate to contact us if any part of it has been unclear or if you have any further questions. I was assisted in writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Mari neyn Brian, Ewphrick neyn Kenneoch, Arval Benicoeur, Adelaide de Beaumont, Dietmar von Straubing, Amant le Marinier, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Adeliza de Saviniaco 6 January 2001 ------------------------- References: [1] Gaelic would not normally place a consonant between an and an in this manner. [2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986). s.n. Meek. [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.v. Siba/n. [4] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). s.v. Jane, Janet. [5] is found in Watson, William J., ed., _Scottish Verse from the Book of the Dean of Lismore_, Scottish Gaelic Texts, Volume 1. (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1937). This edition uses standard modern Gaelic spelling. The spellings in the original early 16th century manuscript, and , are both from poetic descriptions of an early 15th century man as the son of a woman whose name is rendered in modern Gaelic as Seonaid. These spellings suggest that the 15th century standard Gaelic form of the name was similar to , but we cannot be certain of the exact spelling, since the original manuscript, although written in Gaelic, did not use standard Gaelic spelling but rather adapted Scots language spelling conventions for writing Gaelic. The manuscript spellings are from M'Lauchlan, Thomas, ed. and trans. _The Dean of Lismore's Book: A Selection of Ancient Gaelic Poetry from a Manuscript Collection Made by Sir James M'Gregor, Dean of Lismore, in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century_. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1862. pp. 106-107. [6] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Quick and Easy Gaelic Names (Draft 3rd Edition)", (WWW: Privately published, 27 Aug 2000). http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ [7] Black, s.n. Logan. [8] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, s.v. Lenna/n. [9] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vs Ralte), unpublished research. [10] Mackechnie, John, "Treaty Between Argyll and O'Donnell", _Scottish Gaelic Studies_ Vol. VII, Part I, May 1951. [11] Black, s.n. Maclennan. [12] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Scottish Names 101 (Draft 3rd Edition)", (WWW: Privately published, 27 August 2000). http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/scotnames101-3rded.shtml - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Arval, 1 Nov 2001: The Gaelic name of the Campbells was originally given incorrectly as rather than .