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Greetings,
Here's the information we found on your proposed name "Sage MacLeoid" as a 14th-century Scottish name.
From the 14th century, Scotland was increasingly 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 mainly to the north and/or west of a "Highland line" running very 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.
In Gaelic naming culture, bynames such as "Mac Leoid" signified that the person's father was named Leod, not that the bearer belonged to Clann Leoid. An individual's clan affiliation was rarely indicated in his/her byname. "Mac Leoid" means "son of Leod", and such a form would not have been purposely used by a Gaelic speaking woman. Instead, a woman would have used the form "inghen Leoid", with "inghen" being pronounced /NEE-ehn/ in late period, meaning "daughter of Leod". Patronymics such as this were the most common form of byname among Scottish Gaels.
You may have noticed that we have been spelling "Leod" as "Leoid" when it comes after "mac", "inghen", and "clann". This is because "Leoid" is the genitive case of "Leod", the grammatical form needed to say "of Leod".
We have found the genitive form "Leoid" in a Gaelic genealogical manuscript from 1467 [1], but unfortunately the published transcription we have does not indicate whether or not vowel length accents were used in the original manuscript. However, other information we have indicates that in Scotland, the few medieval Gaelic manuscripts that survive seem to be very inconsistent in the use of accent marks. It is probably reasonable to use either form, "Leoid" or "Leóid", although only in a Gaelic language context.
You followed the right lead in trying to justify "Sage" by analogy to other names apparently derived from plant names. Unfortunately, the "plant" names that you cited are either post-period or derived from some other source. "Rose" derives from the Old English name "Hros." "Violet" was introduced into England and Scotland from France. "Heather" (and other flower names) weren't used in the Middle Ages--most of them became popular in the 19th century. We do know that "Violet" was a Scots name in the 16th century [2], but it wouldn't have been used with the Gaelic "mac Leoid."
For a document which gives more detail on Scottish names and the issues involved, we recommend the Web page "Scottish Names 101" at
http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scot_names_101.html
We didn't find any examples of a spiderweb used as a charge in medieval heraldry, although we did find a late-period book about heraldry which lists the spiderweb as a charge. However, books about heraldry often include things which aren't actually used, so we can't consider this to be evidence for a spiderweb. We would say that there's a small chance it was used in late-period heraldry, but we doubt it was used at all. We did find out that a silver spiderweb, on any background, will conflict with an already registered coat.
We can suggest two charges which were used in earlier-period heraldry that you might find appealing. One is a "gurges," a spiral line drawn going into the center of a shield. It's intended to depict a whirlpool. Another is "fretty," a geometric design which looks like a basket-weave across a shield. (The SCA book you found the spiderweb in will have pictures of these as well).
Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Arval D'Espas Nord, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Lindorm Eriksson, Rouland Carre, and Zenobia Naphtali all contributed to this letter.
We hope this is helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.
In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel
[1] 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).
[2] Withycombe, "Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names."