ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2521 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2521 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 6 Oct 2002 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for assistance forming an Irish name using the given name <Lasairfina>. You also mentioned that you do not want to use a clan affiliation byname, and asked about a descriptive byname meaning "round" or "blue-eyed". This is what we have found. We'd like to apologize for the time it has taken us to finish this report. Various members of the Academy found themselves busier this summer than they'd expected. Like you, we have found <Lasairfina> in Ireland in 1239 [1]. <Lasairfina> is an archaic spelling of a name that was popular in Ireland from the 13th century to at least the 16th [1, 2]. It would typically have been written <Lasairfhi/ona> or perhaps <Lasairi/ona> [3], and was pronounced roughly \LAH-s@-REE-n@\ , where <@> stands for the sound of the <a> in <about> and <soda>. (The forward slash represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter.) You also asked for the meaning of this name. Names don't really have meanings. Nearly all names ultimately derived from common words in some langauge and that derivation is sometimes apparent to people using the names; but when used as a name, a word is simply an identifying label, not a meaningful one. The name <Heather> is obviously identical to the word <heather>, but we don't expect a woman named <Heather> to be grey-green or bushy. <Lasairfhi/ona> probably derives from <lasair> "flame, fire" and <fi/ona> "wine". The phrase <lasair fhi/ona> means "wine's fire" [9]. There are several Irish words that mean 'blue-eyed' or might have been used that way in a personal name; we found evidence of only one that was actually used that way. The medieval Irish language split the range of colors we call blue and green differently than we do: <gorm> "deep blue, leaf-green; swarthy" and <glas> "pale blue, light-green; grey". Each is found in compounds refering to eye color: <su/lgorm> "dark-blue-eyed" and <su/lglas> "pale-blue-eyed". The slash represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. The first of these, <su/lgorm>, was used as a personal byname in the early Middle Ages period, but it appears to have dropped out of use by the time your given name was in use [4]. There is a modern Irish word <gorm-shu/ileach> "blue-eyed", and since we have found <Dubhshu/ileach> used as a byname meaning "the black-eyed", it is plausible that <gormshu/ileach> would also have been used as a byname in the last centuries of our period [5, 6]. It is also possible that <gorm> or <glas> alone might have been used to mean "blue-eyed" [5]. These words were also used to describe complexion or hair color, <gorm> meaning "swarthy" and <glas> meaning "pale, grey" [4]. We didn't find a byname that precisely means "round", but we can offer three possibilities that might capture the meaning you have in mind: <me/ith> "fat, gross, corpulent"; <reamhar> "fat, gross"; and <mo/r> "big, great". We have examples of each of these used in your period for a man, and one late 14th century example of <mo/r> used for a woman [6, 7]. After a woman's given name, Gaelic grammar sometimes requires the first consonant of the next word to soften in pronunciation. This change is called "lenition". In your name, the initial \G\ or \M\ sounds in a byname would soften to \GH\ or \V\, respectively. \GH\ represents a sound not used in modern English; it is the voiced version of the raspy <ch> sound in the Scottish word <loch> or German <Bach>. In writing, this change is indicated by adding an <h> after the letter. Thus, "Lasairfhi/ona [the] blue-eyed" would be written <Lasairfhi/ona Ghormshu/ileach> or perhaps <Lasairfhi/ona Ghlas>, and "Big Lasairfhi/ona" would be <Lasairfhi/ona Mho/r>. Thus, the bynames we've recommended would appear in your name as: Mhe/ith pronounced roughly \VAY\ Reamhar \REV-@r\ Mho/r \VOAR\ Ghormshu/ileach \GHORM-HOOL-y@kh\ [10] Ghlas \GHLAHS\ \kh\ stands for the unvoiced version of \gh\, i.e. the <ch> sound in <loch> or <Bach>. \HOOL\ is pronounced as in <hooligan>. In formal circumstances a late-period Irish Gaelic woman would almost always have been known as her father's daughter, using a patronymic byname [8], such as <Lasairfhi/ona inghean Mhurchaidh> "Lasairfhi/ona daughter of Murchadh". The word <inghean> was pronounced \EEN-y@n\ [10]. For general information on the kinds of bynames that were used in Gaelic, we recommend that you read the article: Quick & Easy Gaelic Names http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ For a selection of names appropriate for your father, we recommend: Index of Names in Irish Annals: Masculine Names http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/ If you would like further help in forming a patronymic, please write us back. And once you've chosen a name, we'll be happy to provide the correct pronunciation for your period. We were assisted in the research and writing of this letter by Talan Gwynek, Mari neyn Brian, Adelaide de Beaumont, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Jehane de Saint Michael, Laurensa de Chambord, and Effrick neyn Kenneoch For the Academy, Caitriona inghean Ui Bhraonain & Arval Benicoeur 6 Oct 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: [1] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Feminine Names" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001), s.n. Lasairi/ona. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/ [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.n. Lassar Fhi/na. [3] The Annals often used archaic spellings. We have recommended a normalized spelling for your period. Gaelic orthography had fairly fixed rules; accordingly, we can construct a spelling which we have not actually found in period records. This is called a normalized spelling, which can be thought of as the theoretically correct spelling according to the rules for the period under consideration rather than the most common spellings actually found. [4] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.vv. gorm, glas, su/il. Under the last heading, one example is the name <Mael su/lgorm Seachlaind>. [5] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Masculine Descriptive Bynames" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/DescriptiveBynames/ [6] We also found a word <gormdercach> that could also mean "blue-eyed", but we found no evidence that it was used as a byname, so we don't recommend it [4]. [7] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Feminine Descriptive Bynames" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/DescriptiveBynames.html [8] A patronymic byname identifies a person as her father's child, like <Cormac mac Domhnaill> "Cormac son of Domhnall" and <Lasairfhi/ona inghean Dhomhnaill> "Lasairfhi/ona daughter of Domhnall". In Irish Gaelic, many people are also identified by a clan affiliation byname, like <Cormac O/ Domhnaill> and <Lasairfhi/ona inghean ui/ Dhomhnaill>. <O/ Domhnall> literally means "male descendent of Domhnall" but quickly came to be used to mean "male member of the O/ Domhnaill clann". The feminine form <inghean ui/ Dhomhnaill> means "daughter of O/ Domhnaill" and was used to identify a female member of the clan. [9] Dictionary of the Irish Language, s.vv. lasar, fi/na. The first element of name may not in fact be the word <lasar>. [10] The pronunciations with \l-y\ and \n-y\ split across two syllables are very rough approximations. The correct pronunciation is \l~\ -- a palatalized \l\ -- in the first case and \n~\ -- a palatalized \n\ -- in the second. "Palatalized" means "pronounced with the tongue arched to touch the upper palate". \l~\ is the sound of the <lli> in the French word <million> or the <gl> in Italian <degli>. \n~\ is the sound of the <gn> in French <montagne> or Italian <lasagna> or the n-tilde in Spanish <sen~or>. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Followup, 4 Sep 2003 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked: > ...I am feeling that I would like to add a patronymic name to it, > but not get rid of the descriptive name. Was this ever done? Were > both a descriptive and a patronymic byname ever used? ...the name I > am now considering ...should look something like: > Lasairfhiona Ghlas inghean Br"ccan > Does this work? Yes, they sometimes combined a descriptive byname with a patronymic; and when they did, this is the correct word-order. There are two caveats, though: * Women were rarely identified with descriptive bynames. In a study of several thousand names, one of our members found just a few dozen examples of women's descriptive bynames. See http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/ and follow the link Feminine Descriptive Bynames * Just as Irish grammar requires that <Glas> become <Ghlas> after a feminine given name, it requires some changes in the father's name in a patronymic byname. First, in any patronymic, the father's given name must be put into the genitive (possessive) case so that it means "Broccan's". The genitive form of <Brocca/n> (which should have the accent on the 'a', not the 'o') is <Brocca/in>, which is pronounced roughly \BROHK-kahn~\, where \OH\ stands for the vowel in <more> and \n~\ represents the sound of the <gn> in French <montagne> or Italian <lasagna>. Second, after the feminine word <inghean>, the initial consonants in the father's name may undergo lenition. In this case, the \B\ sound softens to \V\. (More precisely, it becomes \BH\, the \V\-like sound that you get by vibrating your lips together rather than vibrating one lip against your teeth.) The spelling reflects this change: <inghean Bhrocca/in> is pronounced \EEN-y@n BHROHK-kahn~\. \@\ stands for the sound of the <a> in <about>. > And is Bro/ccan an appropriate name for my father? Unfortunately, it probably isn't. According to Donnchadh O/ Corra/in and Fidelma Maguire, in their book _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), <Brocca/n> was a common name in early Ireland, especially in the south; but there's no evidence of the name in late medieval Ireland in any of our standard sources. Since our evidence for your given name, in our previous report to you, was all late medieval, we suggest that you choose a late-period name for your father, as well. If you particularly want to use some form of <Brocca/n>, you might consider a clan affiliation byname based on it, i.e. <Lasairfhiona Ghlas inghean ui/ Bhrocca/in> "Lasairfhiona the Grey of the O Broccan clan". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Followup, 5 Sep 2003 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! One of our members had some additional information about your name: In late period, the -cc- becomes -g-. Woulfe (p. 444 s.n. O/ Bro/ga/in) lists two Anglicized Irish forms of this name dated to temp. Elizabeth I - James I: O Brogane O Brogan This shows that the clan name was used in the late 16th or early 17th C. So, the recommended form of her name should be: <Lasairfhi/ona Ghlas inghean ui/ Bhro/ga/in> (note the accent on the given name - per the <Lasairfhi/ona> page in the feminine names section of my annals article.) References: Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/