ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2158 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2158 ************************************ 21 Nov 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a man living in Paisley, Scotland, around 1154, and how the name would have been rendered in other languages used in the area. You also asked our opinion of your design for your arms, "Per fess Sable and Gules, a dance Or, two mullets in chief Argent." Here is what we have found. In the 12th century, several languages were spoken in the area that is Scotland today. The major ones were: * Norse, spoken in the far north and the western isles. * English, spoken mainly in the southeast. * Gaelic, spoken through much of the country. * Norman French, spoken by Anglo-Norman settlers and their Scoto-Norman descendents, mostly in the south. The languages were very different and had different naming customs. There was some mixing of names from the different cultures, but most names were not adopted into all of the cultures. Paisley is close to Glasgow. It originally developed as a village around a Cluniac abbey founded in 1163 [1]. A man living in that area around 1150 was therefore most likely a Gael, but could have been an early Norman settler. The name you asked about is Gaelic, so we'll focus on that culture. is a later-period spelling of a name that would most often have been written in 12th century Gaelic. That name was fairly popular in early medieval Ireland [2]. It appears to have been reasonably common among Scottish Gaels, as well; we have found examples from the 12th and early 13th century [3]. You wrote that you are pronouncing as \OO-an\ or \AY-ven\. Unfortunately, neither pronunciation is correct. In your period, was most likely pronounced \EHW-@n\. \EHW\ represents the diphthong you get when you say with a lisp and get ; and then stop before you get to the 'y'. \@\ represents the sound of the 'a' in . The name was sometimes anglicized , , or in late-period records. The last spelling was pronounced just like the others; the 'v' was used to represent the sound \w\, not \v\. This was a common scribal convention in our period and beyond. Unfortunately, it has led to the mis-conception that is pronounced with a \v\. is a modern spelling of a very early medieval Irish name that was spelled in early 9th century records. The slashes in the name represent acute accent marks over the preceding letters. The name appears to have dropped out of use by the 10th century and was apparently not revived until modern times. We recommend strongly that you choose a different name for your father. You might consider the related name , pronounced \EHDH\, where \DH\ represents the sound of the 'th' in . (If had remained in use into the 11th century, it would have been pronounced \EHDH-ahn\, not \AY-dan\.) In period Gaelic, people were almost always identified as their fathers' children. For example, Eogan son of A/ed mac Conall would have been known as . is the genitive (possessive) form of , required here by Gaelic grammar; it makes the name mean "Eogan, A/ed's son". This name would have been pronounced \EHW-@n mahk EHDH-@\. If you'd like to consider some other appropriate names for your father, you can find good lists in these two articles on the web: 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Name http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.shtml Both articles give the genitive form of the masculine given names; that's the form you need in your name. The second article also contains a good discussion of the patterns of naming used by Gaels in your period. You asked how your name might have been rendered into other languages in your area. Given the history of 12th century Paisley, we'd expect the relevant languages to be Norman French and Latin. Latin was the written language of all cultures in medieval Scotland. The Normans might have rendered the Gaelic name as [3, 4]. We've found rendered into Latin as and also as , where it was equated with a well-known Latin name. was rendered as and <{AE}dus> [5, 6, 7]. The symbol {AE} represents an A-E ligature, i.e. the two letters squashed together so that the righthand stroke of the 'A' coincides with the vertical stroke of the 'E'. A scribe writing in Latin might have recorded the Gaelic name as or . Heraldic arms were coming into use among Scoto-Norman families in your period, but not in Gaelic culture. If you choose a Gaelic persona, then it is not historically appropriate for you to use arms. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/nonheraldic.html Your design for arms could be blazoned "Per fess sable and gules, a dance Or and in chief two mullets argent." Unfortunately, this design is not very likely for anyone in medieval Scotland. The dance (or "fess dancetty") was vanishingly rare in Scottish heraldry. Divided fields were unusual and fields divided of two colors (dark tinctures) were unknown [8]. We can suggest some alternatives, using elements of your design, that are better suited to medieval Scotland. Chiefs indented and charged chiefs were used fairly early in Scottish heraldry, and mullets were common [8]. We can use these elements to create a similar stars-and-zig-zag motif: "Or, a chief indented sable charged with two mullets argent". A very similar set of arms from period Scotland was drawn so that the bottom of the chief was nearly as low as "per fess indented" [9]. As far as we can tell, you should be able to register this design in the SCA. 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 Zenobia Naphtali, Rouland Carre, Talan Gwynek, Margaret Makafee, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 21 Nov 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] "Paisley" Encyclopędia Britannica Online. [Accessed 16 October 2000]. http://www.eb.com:180/bol/topic?eu=59479&sctn=1 [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 [3] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Macewan. This name derives from the Gaelic , and Black notes 1219 and before 1174. [4] Black, s.n. Heth gives c.1157, and s.n. Macath he has 1232. Both surnames represent . [5] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.nn. Eoghan, Aodh. [6] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Eo/gan. [7] Black, s.n. Aed, Eoghann. [8] Schweitzer, Leslie A., and David Hunter of Montlaw, "Late Medieval Scottish Heraldic Design", Proceedings of the XXIII International Conference of Genealogy and Heraldry Sciences, 1998 (forthcoming). [9] Douglas of Lochlevyn "Argent, on a chief indented azure two mullets argent." Campbell, Colin, _The Scots Roll: A Study of a Fifteenth Century Roll of Arms_ (Heraldry Society of Scotland 1995; ISBN 0 9525258 0 1), f.49r. Although this roll of arms is later than your persona, these particular arms probably existed earlier.