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 <Eoghan Mac Aidan> 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.

<Eoghan> is a later-period spelling of a name that would most often have
been written <Eogan> 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 <Eoghan> as \OO-an\ or \AY-ven\.
Unfortunately, neither pronunciation is correct.  In your period, <Eogan>
was most likely pronounced \EHW-@n\.  \EHW\ represents the diphthong you
get when you say <very> with a lisp and get <vewy>; and then stop before
you get to the 'y'.  \@\ represents the sound of the 'a' in <about>.  The
name was sometimes anglicized <Ewen>, <Ewan>, or <Evan> 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 <Eoghan> is pronounced with a \v\.

<Aidan> is a modern spelling of a very early medieval Irish name that was
spelled <A/eda/n> 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
<A/ed>, pronounced \EHDH\, where \DH\ represents the sound of the 'th' in
<this>.  (If <A/eda/n> 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 <Eogan mac A/eda>.  <A/eda> is the genitive (possessive) form of <A/ed>,
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 <Eogan mac A/eda> as <Ewen mac Eth> [3, 4].  We've
found <Eogan> rendered into Latin as <Eoganus> and also as <Eugenius>,
where it was equated with a well-known Latin name.  <A/ed> was rendered as
<Aidus> 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 <Eogan mac A/eda> as
<Eoganus filius Aidi> or <Eugenius filius {AE}di>.


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


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References

[1] "Paisley" Encyclopædia 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 <Eogan>, and Black notes <Gilpatrik mac
Ewen> 1219 and <Malcolm mac Ewen> before 1174.

[4] Black, s.n. Heth gives <Malcolm mac Eth> c.1157, and s.n. Macath he has
<Duncanus filius Gillmychel M'ath> 1232.  Both surnames represent <mac
A/eda>.

[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.