ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2585 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2585 ************************************ From: Sara L Friedemann 10 Oct 2002 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate name for a Scotsman living on the English/Scottish border during the mid-to- late 16th century. Here is a brief letter with the information we have found. You've picked an excellent name. Virtually all Scottish men in your period had just a single given name and a single surname. was quite common in the Scottish Lowlands in the 16th century, and we find the spelling recorded in Scots documents in 1475 and 1537, with similar spellings in 1526, 1564, and 1587. [1,2] You wanted to know whether was pronounced like . We don't think that it was; the earlier spelling [1] indicates that the vowel was probably roughly \OA\, the sound of in rather than like the sound of in or . We therefore think that was pronounced approximately \KROA-s@r\, where \@\ stands for the sound of in and . We hope that this quick letter has been useful to you, and that you won't hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 10Oct02 -- References: [1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986). s.n. Crosar [2] Sharon L. Krossa (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Early 16th Century Scottish Lowland Names" (WWW: Privately pubished, 1 Nov 2001). http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/lowland16