ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2617 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2617 ************************************ From: Sara L Friedemann 24 Dec 2002 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for an 8th century Irish woman. Here is the information we have found. Your name is essentially perfect; we recommend just one change in the spelling of the byname. was one of the most popular of all early Irish feminine names. It is an excellent choice. [1] The masculine name was used throughout the Middle Ages, though its spelling changed over the years. This spelling is appropriate for your period. When used in a byname meaning "daughter of Cuilend," the name changes to or . The addition of the is a result of lenition, or softening, of the initial consonant [5], and the change from to or is analogous to the change from to in English. Though both spellings and were in use in your period, is older and therefore a better choice. [6] We recommend as an appropriate byname meaning "daughter of Cuilend." [1,2,3,4] , "Eithne, daughter of Cuilend," is an excellent name; it was pronounced \AYTH-n~@ EEN-y@n KHOO-l~in\. Here \@\ is the sound of in and , \n~\ is the sound of in , \kh\ is the sound of in Scottish and German , and \l~\ is a palatalized , the sound of in the French word 'million' and Italian 'of the'. This sound does not occur in native English words. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter were provided by Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Mari neyn Brian, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Juan del Escobar. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 24Dec02 --------------------------------------- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.nn. Cuile/n, Eithne [2] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3). s.n. (Mac) Cullen [3] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983). s.v. cuileann [4] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976). 158, 45 [5] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Quick and Easy Gaelic Names (3rd Edition)" (WWW: Privately published, 22 Jun 2001) http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ [6] Thurneysen, Rudolf, _A Grammar of Old Irish_, trans. by D.A. Binchy & Osborn Bergin (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1975). --