ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2619 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2619 ************************************ From: Sara L Friedemann 03 Jan 2003 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate name for a 16th century Irishman who is now living on the continent. Here is the information we have found. is an Irish Gaelic adaptation of the name . (The slash represents an accent over the previous letter). It is a fine choice for your given name; we find it recorded a number of times in the 16th century. [1] It was sometimes also spelled . [1] is a modern English form of the Gaelic clan byname . [2] In the 16th century, we find this byname recorded in English as and . [3] Other clan style bynames are often recorded in English with an apostrophe instead of a space between the two words, so we believe and are also reasonable English forms of the byname. [3,4] A 16th century Irishman named who was a member of the clan would have been known as in Gaelic. In English, his name might have been recorded as or . [4] You said that your persona was originally from Ireland and now living on the continent. In such a situation, you most likely would not have been known by your Gaelic name any more, but rather by an adaptation of that name into your local language. If you tell us the country in which you want to locate your persona, we might be able to suggest an adaptation of your Gaelic name into that language. In general, it's possible in most places that would have been replaced by the local version of the name , and that your surname would have been approximated phonetically in the local spelling system. We hope that this 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 Adelaide de Beaumont, Arval Benicoeur, Maria filia Briani, Talan Gwynek, and Julie Stampntizky. For the Academy, -Argantgui filia Catmaili, 03Jan03 -- References [1] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Masculine Given Names" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/ [2] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3). s.n. (O) Sheeran [3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). p. 645 s.n. O/ Si/ri/n [4] O'Donovan, John. _Annals of Ireland, by the Four Masters_, Volume 5 (New York, N.Y.: AMS Press, 1966). pp. 1649-1652, 1690-1691 --