ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2636 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2636 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 14 Dec 2002 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate given name for an Irish man living between 1050 and 1150; and whether some form of is appropriate as a surname. You expressed a preference for a surname that didn't begin with or . (The slash in some of these words represents an acute accent mark over the preceding letter.) This letter is a brief answer to your question. is a fine choice. It was reasonably popular, especially in northern Ireland, throughout your period [1, 2]. It was pronounced \LOHKH-lahn~\, where \OH\ stands for the vowel sound in , \kh\ represents the raspy sound in Scottish or German , and \n~\ stands for the sound of the in French or Italian . is a Gaelic clan surname that was in use in your period. In 1045, a man is identified as or ; in 1102, another is or [3, 4]. here is an abbreviation of or , earlier spellings of the word that became later in period. Thus is a fine name for your period. It means "Lochlainn of the O/ Ciarduba/in clan" and was pronounced \LOHKH-lahn~ OO@ KYAHR-dhoo-vahn~\. \dh\ stands for the sound of the in , and \@\ represents the sound of in or . Spellings varied in period documents, as you can see; the spelling we've recommended is typical for your period. Since you asked about surnames other than patronymics like and clan bynames like , you might be interested in a descriptive byname, i.e. one that identifies you by some physical characteristic or behavior, by an incident in your past, etc. You can find an article discussing such bynames, which were used in your period, on the web: Index of Names in Irish Annals: Masculine Descriptive Bynames http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/DescriptiveBynames/ If you'd like to check the grammar or pronunciation of any particular byname, we'll be happy to help. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Mari neyn Brian, Margaret Makafee, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 14 Dec 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Lochlainn. [2] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entry U1023.4: . http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/. [3] Annals of Ulster, entries U1045.1 and U1102.9. [4] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters, vol. 2", six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98), entries M1045.7, M1102.1. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005B. --------------- Correction by Aryanhwy, 11 June 2006: Corrected pronunciation of .