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Greetings,
You wrote to us enquiring whether Bryn or Brynach MacLachlan and Elizabeth Bryn Millar could be documented as 16th century Scottish names, and also enquiring about the arms: "On a white background (Argent), a black horse (sable), going to the left in a walk (passant), inside a wreath of Forget me not flowers". Here is the information we found about the names. A letter about the device will be sent seperately.
In the 16th century, Scotland was mainly divided into two different cultures, Highland and Lowland, which spoke two unrelated languages, and thus had two different naming traditions. The Highlands included the Western Isles, the geographic highlands to the north and/or west of a "Highland line" running roughly northeast from Glasgow to Perth to Aberdeen then heading northwest to Inverness, and parts of the geographic highlands in southwest Scotland. Lowland culture was nearly everywhere else, with the notable exception of the Northern Isles, and was especially strong at the Scottish royal court and in the burghs (towns). Most Highlanders, or Gaels, spoke Gaelic, a language which was also spoken in Ireland, while most Lowlanders spoke Scots, a language closely related to English. Scottish names in this period were normally either Gaelic or Scots language names, to match the culture of the individual, but not a mixture of both.
As you know, "Bryn" is a purely modern Welsh personal name. We could find no examples of it being used in period Scotland, either as a personal name or as a byname, in either Gaelic or Scots naming cultures. So, neither "Bryn MacLachlan" nor "Elizabeth Bryn Millar" would be documentable as 16th century Scottish Gaelic or Scots names.
There was a Welsh Saint Brynach (from Ireland), but he was from the 5/6th century, not the 11th (although "Brynach" is a medieval form of the name, not a 6th century one). However, there is no evidence that the name was taken into general usage. The only example we could find was of the saint himself. And since the saint was a man, his name would not be suitable for a woman, anyway.
The closest historical female Gaelic name we could find to "Brynach" was "Bruinneach" [1], pronounced /bruhn-yahkh/, with the emphasis on the first syllable and /kh/ representing the sound found in Scottish 'loch' and German 'ach'. However, we have found no evidence that this name was used by Scottish Gaels, and the only example we have been given for its use in Ireland is from early period. It may not have been in use even in Ireland in the 16th century.
We could find no historical female Scots language name that was close to "Brynach" in sound or spelling.
In Gaelic naming culture, bynames such as "Mac Lachlain" [2] signified that the person's father was named Lachlan, not that the bearer belonged to Clann Lachlain. An individual's clan affiliation was rarely indicated in his/her byname. "Mac Lachlain" means "son of Lachlan", and such a form would not have been purposely used by a Gaelic speaking woman. Instead, a woman would have used the form "inghean Lachlain", with "inghean" being pronounced /NEE-ehn/ in late period Scotland, meaning "daughter of Lachlan". Patronymics such as this were the most common form of byname among Scottish Gaels.
You may have noticed that we have been spelling "Lachlan" as "Lachlain" when it comes after "mac", "inghean", and "clann". This is because "Lachlain" is the genitive case of "Lachlan", the grammatical form needed to say "of Lachlan".
"Bruinneach inghean Lachlain" might (or might not) be a reasonable name for a 16th century Scottish Gaelic woman, depending on whether "Bruinneach" was actually used in Scotland in that period. As stated, we do not actually have any evidence to say that it was. If you are interested in a Gaelic name that is more certainly historically accurate, it would be better to chose a different Gaelic personal name to go with "inghean Lachlain".
As already indicated, "Elizabeth Bryn Millar" is not an historically plausible name. Even if "Bryn" were a period given name, double given names (i.e., middle names) were not used in period Britain.
However, there are several possibilities for historically plausible names that use some of these elements.
First, if you were to change to a 16th century _Welsh_ persona, "Elizabeth Bryn" (possibly with minor spelling adjustments) would work.
Otherwise, "Elizabeth Millar" would be a reasonable 16th century Lowland Scots name. It would not, however, work for a Gaelic persona. In Black [3], we find the following spellings of "Elizabeth", with their respective dates:
Another possibility would be to combine "Elizabeth" with a 16th century Scots (not Gaelic) spelling of "MacLachlan", to form a name for a Scots-speaking Lowland persona whose paternal ancestors had come from the Highlands. In this case, "MacLachlan" would be acting as a fixed, inheritable surname, rather than as a Gaelic patronymic byname, and thus would indicate neither that your father's name was Lachlan, nor that you belonged to Clann Lachlain, but rather that your father's surname had been "MacLachlan". (Lowlanders were not normally part of clan structures.) In Black [3], we find the following Scots spellings for "MacLachlan", with their respective dates:
Finally, since "Elizabeth" was adopted into the Gaelic naming culture as "Ealasaid" or "Alusaid" at least by the 15th century [2], for a Gaelic persona you could combine "Ealasaid"/"Alusaid" with the patronymic byname "inghean Lachlain". "Ealasaid"/"Alusaid" would be pronounced roughly /yell-ah-sahtch/, /ell-ah-sahtch/, or /ahll-ah-sahtch/, with the emphasis on the first syllable, and /tch/ pronounced as in English 'match'. This would actually be a better historical reconstruction than "Bruinneach inghean Lachlain", since we know that "Ealasaid"/"Alusaid" was a late period Scottish Gaelic name. Further research casts doubt on both these spellings; see below for more details
You may find helpful the article "Scottish Names 101", which can be found, along with other resources and articles about Scottish names, at the Medieval Scotland website: http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/medieval_scotland.html
If you do not have access to the Web, we can arrange to e-mail you a copy.
You asked about the arms "Argent, a horse passant sable within a wreath of forget-me-not-flowers proper". We assume that you mean the flowers to appear in their natural colors, since you didn't specify otherwise.
Your basic idea is a good one, but there are a couple suggestions that we offer to make your design more appropriate to your period.
The basic motif of a charge within a wreath is quite common in Society armory, but actually quite rare in period arms. In practical terms, we might understand the historical rarity of the design by noting that placing the horse within the wreath forces it to be quite small. Normally in period arms, the central charge is drawn as large as possible so as to make it as distinctive as possible.
We have found no evidence that forget-me-not flowers were used in medieval armory. Heraldic art tended to use a fairly small variety of flowers, each of which was quite distinct in appearance. Rather than introduce a new, undocumented flower-charge, you might consider using the "cinquefoil", a generic flower-like charge which was common in armory throughout our period. Or you could use generic wreaths.
Here are some designs that use the elements of your design, that are excellent re-creation for your period, and that you may find appealing.
We believe these designs to be free of conflict for purposes of registration in the Society. If you try any other designs, you'll need to be careful to avoid conflict with the Society arms of Aricia Jehane Deveraux "Argent, a horse passant sable between three roses azure".
Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Arval d'Espas Nord, and myself contributed to this letter.
We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.
[1] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh, and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_, 2nd edn. (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990) s.v. "Bruinnech".
[2] The spellings "Lachlan" and "Lachlain", and "Calusaid" (with added "C") can be found in the 1467 Gaelic Genealogical Manuscript, as transcribed in Skene, William F., "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 1. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, with a Translation,", pp 50-62, and "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 2. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, continued," pp. 357-60, _Colectanea de Rebus Albanicis consisting of Original Papers and Documents Relating to the History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, ed. The Iona Club (Edinburgh: Thomas G. Stevenson, 1847).
[3] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland_ (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1993) s.v. "Scapa", "Handasyde", "Skeoch", "Macqueen", "Millar", and "MacLachlan".
Correction, 26 Mar 2002, Arval: The only spelling we're sure of is Ealusaid. See Scottish Gaelic Given Names, http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven.