ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2623 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2623 ************************************ 3 Apr 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked our help creating a name for a woman named , whose father was , , or , living in Scotland between 900 and 1100 A.D. Here's what we've found. The Gaelic name was very common early in your period and appears in Irish records in 916, 951, 1015 and 1016 [1]. The wife of an 11th century of the Scottish Earl of Strathearn is identified in a Latin document as ; this may well have represented [4]. You observed correctly that the inhabitants of the Hebrides in your period were a mixture of Norse and Gaels. In such an area of mixed culture, a woman might have been called by both Gaelic and Norse versions of her name. appears in Norse documents as [2], where {dh} represents the letter edh, written as a backward '6' with a bar across the upper limb. Various Scottish Gaelic kings in the 10th and 11th centuries were named , though we do not have their names in a Gaelic form [4]; but the specific spelling is found in a 12th century Gaelic document [3]. In Old Norse of approximately the same period the name was written [2]. , daughter of , would have been known as . The is added to the final syllable of to produce the genetive (possessive) form of the name, just like the <'s> in English . The full name was pronounced \AYTH-n~@ EEN-y@n DOHV-nahl~\ where \@\ stands for the sound of the 'a' in or , \OH\ represents the vowel in , \l~\ represents the sound of in the French word 'million' and the
in Italian 'of the", and \n~\ stands for the sound of in [7]. The Norse equivalent would be (the slash represents an acute accent mark over the previous letter). It was pronounced \EHDH-n@ DOOV-nyahlz DOAT-teer\, where \DH\ stands for the sound of the in and \OO\ represents the vowel sound in and \OA\ represents the one in . Thus, Gaelic and Norse are fine names for your entire period. Brian Boru, the King of Ireland, was born in the 10th century (925 or 941 depending on the source). However, the name did not become popular until the 11th century. We found references to in Ireland in the years 1003, 1028 and 1029 [5]. also appears in Norse documents of the same time period as or [2]. We have found no example of in Scotland in your period, but it was popular enough in Ireland that it is not unreasonable to think that it must also have been used occasionally in Scotland. It isn't the best re-creation, but it is plausible. , daughter of , would have been known as . This name was pronounced \AYTH-n~@ EEN-y@n VREE-ahn~\. The \B\ sound in softens to \V\ [8] due to a requirement of Gaelic grammar called lenition. The Norse equivalent was pronounced \EHDH-n@ BREE-ahnz DOAT-teer\. Gaelic and Norse are plausible names for the 11th century, though not as likely as the previous suggestion. was the Gaelic adaptation of Latin (John). It was used in the early Middle Ages as the name for Saint John and other foreigners of that name. The names of many important saints were generally considered too holy for normal use by Gaels in both Ireland and Scotland, so they didn't pass into general use until much later than your period [6]. We have no evidence that was used by Scottish Gaels in the 10th and 11th centuries. I hope the information in this letter has been useful. Please write to us again if any part of it is unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Mari neyn Brian, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Arval Benicoeur, Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek and Effrick neyn Kenneoch. For the Academy, Juan del Escobar & Arval Benicoeur 3 Apr 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Feminine Names" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2000-2002), s.n. Eithne. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/ [2] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). [3] Jackson, Kenneth. The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972, s.n. . [4] Sharon L. Krossa, "Scottish Gaelic Given Names" (WWW: privately published, 2000-2002). http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven/ [5] Donnchadh O Corrain, Mavis Cournane, ed., "Annals of the Four Masters, Volume 2" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), s.n. . http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005B/ [6] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Eoin. [7] More precisely, the in represents \BH~\, which is the nasalized version of the \v\-like sound of the in Spanish . That sound is made by positioning the lips to make a \b\ and relaxing them so that they can vibrate against one another. To nasalize it, allow some of the sound to come out through your nose. [8] The \V\ sound in lenited is more accurately \BH\, as explained in the previous note.