ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2757 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2757 ************************************ Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! is a descriptive nickname that means "Long-side, tall". The example of that you found is part of the name of a woman who supposedly lived in the third century. Her name is given as which means "Eithne Long-side daughter of Cathaoir the Great (or the Large)". The word is a late-period spelling of a word that occurs in early medieval texts as (and other variants). We found one other example of the word, a man mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters (entry M241.2) as . He was also said to have lived in the 3rd century. There are no records from 3rd century Ireland. The accounts of these two appear in documents written many centuries later -- at least 500 years and often as much as 1400 years after the events described! The particular source where you originally found the name was written in the 17th century, based on contemporary documents. The Annals of the Four Masters was also written late in our period. There are two important consequences: * There is no way to know if this man and woman ever really existed, or if they were purely legendary. There is therefore no way to know whether anyone ever thought that "Long-side" was a suitable name for a real person, or whether it was a fanciful name chosen at some point for a character in popular oral legend. * Names in 17th century documents were written in 17th century forms, not 3rd century forms. If these people actually existed, their names in 3rd century Ireland were unrecognizably different from the 17th century versions. The language of 3rd century Ireland differed from 17th century Irish more than modern French differs from classical Latin. In short, we can't recommend as a good choice for a name for any time in Irish history. Arval for the Academy 07 Aug 2003