ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2444 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2444 ************************************ 11 Jan 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a medieval Irish woman in the 13th, 14th, or early 15th century. This letter is a brief answer to your question. is a modern form of a name that we've found in period Irish records as and . The slash represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. The earliest example we've found is from the early 15th century [1, 2]. It was pronounced roughly \kaht-leen\. In a past report [3] we offered as a name used in Ireland sometime after 1200. After reviewing our evidence, we've concluded that we were wrong: We find it used as a given name only in the 8th and 9th centuries. In all our later examples, the name is part of the clan name [4, 5, 6, 7]. We apologize for that error, and we recommend that you avoid as a name for your father. If you like, we can suggest a way to place a name here that sounds similar to ; let us know. For now, we'll just drop this part of your name so that we can discuss the rest. You finished your name with . That's almost correct. The clan name is or [7], and in a woman's name it becomes or . The changes in the name are required by Gaelic grammar. The added in the first version and the added at the end of the second version put into its possessive (genitive) form, so that clan name means "Donnchadh's descendent". The shift from to in the feminine forms represents a softening of the initial sound called "lenition" that is required in some grammatical circumstances, including in a woman's byname. A 15th century woman named who was a member of this clan could have been called or . The surname simply identified her as a member of the clan. The first form was pronounced \kaht-leen EEN-yen ee GHOHN-khee\, the second \kaht-leen EEN-yen ee GHOHN-kh@-gh@\. \kh\ represents the raspy sound in the Scottish word or German . \gh\ represents the voiced equivalent of that sound. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek, and Effrick neyn Kenneoch, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 11 Jan 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Caiteri/ona. [2] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Feminine Names" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001), s.n. Caitili/n. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/ [3] Academy of Saint Gabriel report 2100. http://www.s-gabriel.org/2100 [4] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entries U752.8, U817.11. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/. [5] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters, vol. 1", six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98), entries M713.4, M720.6, M725.4, M814.3. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005A. [6] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters, vol. 2", six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98), entries 964.2, 1026.1, 1106.4. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005B. [7] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation) s.nn. O/ Cillea/in, O/ Donnchadha.