ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2389 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2389 ************************************ 29 Dec 2001 From: Jeannette Hill Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know what the correct form of the name "Nuala, daughter of Toma/s" would be for an Irish woman living in the 13th to 15th centuries. You also asked about appropriate arms for this persona. This is what we found: The name , which we believe was pronounced \NOO-@-l@\, is a pet form of . Early in your period, the two may well have been interchangeable. Later on, well within your period, was used as a given name on it's own. Although not overly common, is a fine choice for your period. The \OO\ is pronounced like the in , and the \@\ is pronounced like the in and . [1] In Gaelic, a woman was almost always identified as her father's daughter. This was done by placing the correct grammatical form of the father's name after the word "daughter". In your period, was pronounced \EEN-y@n\. The father's name must be in the genitive (possessive) form and may need to be lenited. Lenition is a softening of the pronunciation of the initial consonant of a name that is sometimes reflected in spelling; more on that subject later. The name was widely used in your period, and is an excellent choice for your father's name [2]. (The slash represents an accent on the previous letter). You mentioned not being sure of the lenition of . It doesn't lenite in your name: Certain consonants, including , do not lenite after words ending with . So, your father's name becomes , pronounced \TOH-m@sh\. The \OH\ in \TOH\ is pronounced like the in . So, an Irish woman of your period named , who is the daughter of a man named , would be known as , pronounced \NOO-@-l@ EEN-y@n TOH-m@sh\. You also asked about appropriate arms for your persona. In your period, Irish Gaels generally did not use heraldic arms. Gaelic chiefs had begun to adopt the English custom, but even that was rare until the 16th century or later [3]. 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: http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/nonheraldic.html I apologize for the delay of this letter, and hope it is still of use to you. If you have any questions, or if any part of this letter is unclear, write to us again. I was assisted in writing this letter by, Arval d'Espas Nord, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Effric neyn Kenneoch, Maridonna Benvenuti, Mari neyn Bryan, Talan Gwynek, and Barak Raz. For the Academy, Juliana la Caminante de Navarra December 29, 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Dated Names Found in O/Corra/in & Maguire's Irish Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/ocm/ [2] Cournane, Mavis, Vibeke Dijkman, and Ivonne Tummers, "Annals of Connacht" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entries 1244.11, 1316.5, 1343.6 1400.12. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100011 [3] We have found evidence that the Gaelic Irish chiefs started to use heraldry in the mid-14th century, but most examples of heraldic use by the Gaelic Irish chiefs are from the 16th century or later. Their neighbors of English origin brought their heraldry with them and continued to use it. "When did the Irish Chiefs Adopt Heraldry?" John J FitzPatrick Kennedy, Genealogica and Heraldica ed Auguste Vachon, Claire Boudreau, David Cogne/, University of Ottawa Press, 1998, ISBN 0-7766-0472-4.