Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 257

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 257

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/257

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on the name "Devin O Raudh." We want to provide you with some background information as well.

The Irish and Scottish dialects of 13th-century Gaelic have some differences (especially in names) which affect the construction of your name. We also have to take into account other languages spoken in Ireland and Scotland at this time--mainly Scots, a close relative of English that was spoken in Scotland, and English, which was spoken by the Anglo-Normans who invaded Ireland during the 13th century.

"Devin" is an anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic name "Damhín," which means "deer," "stag," or "ox." (1) It's a perfectly legitimate Irish name. We don't have any examples of Scottish people named Damhín, although it might have been used there. Since your persona is from Ireland, this doesn't pose a real problem.

"Ruadh" (note that the "u" and "a" are reversed) is actually a nickname and not a given name, but there are examples of patronymics (names based on your ancestors) which are based on nicknames. Thus "ó Ruadh" would be a perfectly good Irish patronymic. "ó" could be used to mean both "grandson of" and "male descendant" in a broader sense.

"Damhín ó Ruaidh" (the "i" is added for grammatical reasons) is a historically accurate name for an Irish person living in Ireland. You could also use the name "Damhín Ruadh--" in this case "Ruadh" (meaning "red") would be a term that described your persona. You might want to change this because "ó" was very rare in Scottish Gaelic. On the other hand, more than one of the very few examples we do have were used by people from Ireland. The Scottish people who met your persona would have followed the common Scottish usage and called him "mac <father's name>," or they could have continued to call him "ó Ruaidh."

The name "Damhín ó Ruaidh" is a plausible Gaelic name for an Irishman living in Scotland. However, this doesn't quite complete the picture. At the time of your persona, both Gaelic and Scots (a language similar to English) were used in Scotland. Most Scottish documents were written in Scots, not Gaelic, so when your name was written in Scotland it would have been recorded in an Anglicized form. We believe that "Damhín ó Ruaidh" would most likely become "Devin Oroy" when anglicized in Scotland. ("Damhín Raudh" would become "Devin Roy.")

So we have two possible names for you, either with two forms:

The first form is Gaelic form of your name, which would appear in Irish records. The second is the Scots form of your name, which would appear in Scottish records. Depending on the situation, you might actually want to use both forms--but you would only have to register one of them. (2)

Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Talan Gwynek, Zenobia Naphtali, Ivanor of Sighty Crag, Hartmann Rogge, and Arval D'Espas Nord contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) O'Corrain & Maguire, "Irish Names"

(2) Just to make things a little more complicated, the Irish and Scottish anglicized forms of your name would be different. If an English-speaking person in Ireland recorded your name, they would probably write "Devin O'Rowe" or "Devin Rowe" (depending on which name you picked).