Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 266

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 266

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/266

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here is the information we found on "Mór Nia ingen Eva."

It looks like the name you've constructed is a reasonable historical name. But we'd like to clarify some details about the structure of names in general, so that you have an understanding of what your name means.

At birth, almost every culture gives a child a "given name." In Europe, the given name is the name by which people are primarily known. "bynames" are secondary names used by a community to further distinguish people--when an SCA group refers to two people named "Dave" as "Big Dave" and "Small Dave," they're using bynames.

In most cultures (including Ireland and ours) the given name isn't chosen by a child's parents because of its meaning. Although the name "Machelle" has its origins in the Hebrew phrase "who is like God?" this isn't a major factor for most people. Similarly, Irish given names weren't generally associated with a meaning. Bynames, on the other hand, were given because of their meaning.

"Mór" was used as a byname meaning "big" and as a given name. This means that the name "Mór Nia" is a historically accurate name, but it means "Mór the champion" rather than "the big champion."

The example of the name "Nia" cited is used with a man's name. It has the connotation of "champion" as a position or job, and we doubt that it was used by women.

Although "Eva" isn't on the list, we found it in another source of 12th-century Scottish Gaelic names. (1)

The byname "ingen Eva" is a "metronymic name;" it tells who your mother is. We have never seen a Irish metronymic name. This may be because they didn't exist, or, more likely, because the available materials are not likely to reflect such uses. We have more and better materials from Welsh, English, and other languages which show metronymics as an occasional but rare practice. It is, therefore, possible that this was also the case in Irish names.

So the name "Mór Nia ingen Eva" is a reasonable Irish name. "Mawr" is a Welsh word--although it's related to the Irish "mór," they're not interchangable (in the same way, we wouldn't use the German word "Salz" as a substitute for the English "salt.")

Tangwsytl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Margaret Makafee, Talan Gwynek, Arval D'Espas Nord, Lindorm Eriksson, and Zenobia Naphtali all contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If you need any further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Jackson, Kenneth, _The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer_ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972).