ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2273 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2273 ************************************ From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 6 Apr 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked if is an appropriate name for a woman, the daughter of an Irish woman named , living in England between 1100 and 1300. Here is the information we have found. is an English form of a name which was extremely popular throughout Europe through much of the Middle Ages. The earliest citation of the name we find in England is in 1205 [1]. Accordingly, we would not recommend it as a good recreation for the 12th century, but it is a fine choice for the 13th. An Englishwoman of your period generally had one given name and one byname, though she might be known by different bynames throughout the course of her life. Medieval parents chose their children's first names, but the rest of a person's name was essentially descriptive, a way for other people to identify her. They might identify her in many different ways at different times, including by where she lived, who her parents were, who her husband was, etc. We wouldn't expect people to describe you by both your mother's name _and_ by your Irish heritage; they would likely use whichever they thought more important in identifying you at the time. We find a man recorded in 1275 as ; clearly, this meant "John, son of Margaret" to John's neighbors [2]. The apostrophe indicates that the recording scribe left something out; in this case, probably the letter , so we would expect that we might also see this name recorded as . If you think that your mother might have been known by a pet form of Margaret, we find the following bynames recorded in the 13th century based on a variety of diminutives [3]: Robert Maggote, 1279 John filius Megge, 1279 ( is Latin for "son of") John Megge, 1275 Martin Peggi, 1279 William Pogge, 1286 Various forms of were obviously common in England. However, though became popular in Ireland later, it was rare until well after your period. The first record we have of the name in Ireland is in 1364 in an Anglo-Norman family; we do not find used by Gaels until the early 15th century [4, 5]. Because was common in the Anglo-Norman population, we believe it is plausible that a 13th century Englishwoman could have had a mother named who had lived in Ireland, but she would have been Anglo-Norman, not Gaelic. Of course, if you were living in a place where no one knew your mother, the fact that you were her daughter wouldn't be especially useful. Someone who identified you more strongly by your Irish heritage might have used a byname based on that fact. We find the following bynames for your period (all of which mean "the Irish(man)" or "of Ireland") [6, 7]: Richard Ireis, 1169 Ralph de Ibernia, 1200 Ralph de Irlande, 1210 Simon de Irlande, 1273 William le hyreis, 1227 Richard le Irishe, 1273 Henry le Ireys, c. 1300 Any of these forms would be appropriate for your use, even the forms that use the masculine article . We have examples of women's bynames from your period recorded with and others with the feminine form [8, 9, 10]. The bynames which include , , and are documentary, or written, forms. In spoken English, people probably used and , so we would expect or . In summary, or is a fine name for a 13th century Englishwoman whose mother was an Anglo-Irish woman named . We don't believe that either is appropriate for the 12th century since we do not find in England nor do we find in Ireland. 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 Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Julie Stampnitzky, Mari neyn Brian and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 6 April 2001 References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Elizabeth. [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Margetts. [3] Reaney & Wilson, s.nn. Maggot, Meggs, Pegg, Poggs. [4] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Women's Names in the Annals of Connacht: 1224-1544" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 2000). Entry 1364.7 (the first four digits are the year of the events recorded) includes "Margrec ingen Uater a Burcc ben meic Feidlim"; since Margaret's father was named Walter, we believe that this example represents an Anglo-Norman woman rather than a Gael. http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/mari/AnnalsConnacht/. [5] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters", six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997). Entry M1406.7 includes "Mairgreg inghen Toirrdhelbhaigh, mic Eoghain Meic Suibhne ben t-Seain mic Domhnaill mic Neill Ui/ Domhnaill", who is clearly a Gael. The first four digits are the year of the events recorded. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005D (v.4) [6] Reaney & Wilson, s.nn. Ireland, Irish. [7] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.nn. Ireland, Irish. [8] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "An Index to the 1332 Lay Subsidy Rolls for Lincolnshire, England" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 2000), various entries, including . http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/mari/LincLSR/ [9] Bardsley, various entries, including (s.n. Wolf) 1273 and (s.n. Quaint) (undated); (s.n. Black) t. Edward II and (s.n. Brown) 1273. [10] Franklin, Peter, _The Taxpayers of Medieval Gloucestershire: An Analysis of the 1327 Lay Subsidy Roll with a New Edition of its Text_ (Dover, NH: Alan Sutton Publishing Inc, 1993), various entries including (p. 50), (p.48) and (p. 49).