ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2340 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2340 ************************************ 3 Jun 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an Irish woman living between 1200 and 1350. Here is what we have found. The feminine name was relatively common in medieval Ireland and has remained in use to modern times [1, 2]. Your spelling is a very early spelling of the word "bright, radiant" from which the name derives; but that spelling is not appropriate for your period [4]. was pronounced \SOR-kh@\, where \kh\ represents the rasping sound in the Scottish word or German , and \@\ stands for the sound of the in . Although we don't have a specific example from your period, we believe it is appropriate. (where the slash stands for an acute accent mark on the ) is a modern Irish Gaelic surname that derives from a clan name that we've found recorded c.1600 [3]. Although we have not found an earlier example, most Irish clan names date at least to your period; so it is reasonable to speculate that the name was in use by the 13th century [5]. If so, the form used in a woman's name would have been "daughter of O/ Duinnchinn", pronounced \EEN-y@n ee GHIN~-chin~\. \GH\ represents the voiced version of the \kh\ sound we described earlier. \ch\ here stands for the hissy sound in German , and \n~\ represents the sound of the in French or Italian . The change of to in the clan name is required by Gaelic grammar; it indicates the change in pronunciation from \D\ to \GH\. The name would be an excellent choice for a 16th century persona. Our evidence doesn't support it well for the 13th or 14th century, but it is not implausible. 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 Mari neyn Brian and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 3 Jun 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Sorcha. [2] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Feminine Names" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001). The author found examples of this name in 1500 and 1530. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/ [3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. O/ Duinnchinn. [4] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.v. sorchae. [5] Woulfe [3] derives from a hypothetical early medieval masculine given name . We have found no other evidence that this name existed. It is a plausible name, composed of elements "brown" and <-chenn> "head" that appear in other Irish names (c.f. rO/ Corra/in and Maguire [1] s.nn. Donnchad, Donnuca/n, Donngal, Dubcenn). Indeed, "black head" is a very similar construction. However, it is also possible that is a late-periuod variant of some other name and did not exist in your period.