ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2614 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2614 ************************************ 17 Dec 2002 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our help developing an authentic name combining a variant of with either or . Here is what we have found. Since you didn't express a preference for any particular culture, we'll start by looking at the two surnames, since they narrow down your question quickly. is a modern English-language surname derived from the Irish Gaelic byname "son of Carthach" [1]. In our period, this name could have been used in either of two ways: in the early Middle Ages as a literal patronymic (i.e. by a man whose father's given name was ) [2]; and later in period as a clan affiliation byname (i.e. by a man who was a member of the Mac Carthaigh clan). However, we have found no evidence that the name was used by Irish Gaels in our period; so there doesn't appear to be any authentic way to combine the given name with a form of [3]. We're not certain of the origin of . None of our better sources mentions it, which suggests that it is a fairly modern name [7]. However, there were several similar English and Lowland Scottish surnames in use in the Middle Ages and Renaissance [8, 9, 10]: de Hoga 1250 del Hoga 1270, 1280, 1280 le Hog 1274, 1279, 1296 Hoge 1294, 1377 Hog 1296, 1358-63, 1370, 1377, 1379, 1402, 1462 Hogg 1296 del Hog 1313 le Hogge 1323, 1332 Hogh 1496 Hogis 1519 Hoig 1515 Hoige 1526 Some of these surnames, like the ones recorded and , meant "the hog" [10]. Others, like , described the place where a man lived; perhaps meaning "from the spur of land" [11]. Others may derive from , a medieval English nickname for that appears in Chaucer as [12]. None of these is obviously the source of modern , but any of them is a fine choice for your medieval surname. Note that by the end of the 14th century, the English generally used inherited family names; from that point on, a man's surname wasn't assumed to have a meaning that applied to him. Inherited surnames came into use in the Scottish Lowlands a little later, in the late 15th century. Since names similar to seem to be best suited to England and the Scottish Lowlands (where they spoke a language closely related to contemporary English), we'll look at the use of in those regions. was used in England from the beginning of the 13th century, but didn't become common until the 15th century, when it appears in such spellings as 1450, 1491, 1483 [13]. (In the last example, the represents the sound \v\; this was a common scribal convention in England in this period.) By the 16th century, the most common spellings were and [14]. The name was common in Scotland at least from the later part of the 15th century, and gave rise to the very common pet form 1470, 1561 [6]. The most authentic times and places to combine the elements you've chosen appear to be England from about 1200 on, with the 15th or 16th century being the best choices; and the Scottish Lowlands from the late 15th century on. For either place in the 15th century, a name like is a fine choice. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Mari neyn Brian, Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Blaise de Cormeilles, Julie Stampnitzky, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 17 Dec 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3), s.n. MacCarthy. [2] The given name was used only in the early Middle Ages. O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Carthach. [3] We have found several examples of , a Gaelic adaptation of , in 15th and 16th century Irish records; but in all cases, they are the names of Englishmen translated into Gaelic. We found no example of a Gael using the name. Examples include [4, 5]: Cristoir Plonced "Christopher Plunket" 1466 Barun Sla/ine ... .i. Cristoir Plemenn "The Baron of Slane, Christopher Fleming" 1517 Barun Delbna .i. Risderd mac Cristoir meic hSemais "The Baron of Delvin, Richard son of Christopher son of James" 1527 Cri/osto/ir Bru/n "Christopher Brown" 1595 A pet form of the name may have been used by Gaels in Scotland in the 16th century: Among Scots-speaking Lowlanders, was used as a pet form of by the 15th century, and it was apparently adopted into Gaelic by the late 17th [6]. But this name does not appear in our Irish sources. [4] Cournane, Mavis, Vibeke Dijkman, and Ivonne Tummers, "Annals of Connacht" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entries 1466.12, 1517.5, 1527.15. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100011. [5] Beatrix Fa"rber, Peter Flynn, ed., "Annals of the Four Masters, Volume 6" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 2000), entry, 1595.8 http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005F/. [6] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Chrystal, Maccristal. [7] A genealogy website states that is British and derives from some word that means "bluff, height". We can't find a word in any British language that is obviously the basis of that derivation. "Family Chronicle - Surname Origin List, F-L" http://www.familychronicle.com/namesfl.htm [8] Black s.n. Hogg. [9] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), s.n. Hogg. [10] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Hogg. [11] There is an Old English word , where the colon here represents a bar over the 'o', that meant "a heel, a spur of land", which gave rise to northern surnames like . See Reaney & Wilson s.n. How. [12] Reaney & Wilson s.n. Hodge. [13] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Christopher. [14] Gainford Marriages 1556-1719 and Ryton Marriages 1581-1699 (WWW: GENUKI, 1996). Other spellings in these sources include , , , and the scribal abbreviation . In the last example, represents the Greek letters chi and rho, a monogram that stands for . http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/Transcriptions/DUR/GAI.html http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/Transcriptions/DUR/RYT1581.html