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Here is what we have found regarding the name you wished to use, Elisa nicGillen.
In the 15th century, Scotland was mainly divided into two different cultures, Highland and Lowland, which spoke two unrelated languages, and thus had two different naming traditions. The Highlands included the Western Isles, the geographic highlands to the north and/or west of a "Highland line" running roughly northeast from Glasgow to Perth to Aberdeen then heading northwest to Inverness, and parts of the geographic highlands in southwest Scotland. Lowland culture was nearly everywhere else, with the notable exception of the Northern Isles, and was especially strong at the Scottish royal court and in the burghs (towns). Most Highlanders, or Gaels, spoke Gaelic, a language which was also spoken in Ireland, while most Lowlanders spoke Scots, a language closely related to English.
nicGillen is a Gaelic form of the patronymic. However, Gaelic wasn't spoken in the lowlands, and the "nic" wouldn't be used by the scots-speakers.
However, it is possible to form a name for a Scots-speaking Lowland persona whose paternal ancestors had come from the Highlands. In this case, "MacGillen" would be acting as a fixed, inheritable surname, rather than as a Gaelic patronymic byname, and thus would indicate neither that your father's name was Gillen but rather that your father's surname had been "MacGillen". (Lowlanders were not normally part of clan structures.) In Black [1], we find the following Scots spellings for "MacGillen", with their respective dates:
All these forms are founder under "MacLean". Another source describes "O Gillen" as an angicization of "o Giollain", but that refers to an Irish context. (2)
We have not been able to find anything exactly resembling "Elisa" in neither English nor Scottish sources. Black (1) has several variants on Elizabeth, but the only shortened forms are "Elspet" (1512, 1570) and Elspeth (ca. 1540).
The closest form we have found is "Ellice" from 1319, but that is unfortunately questionable. (3)
You may find helpful the article "Scottish Names 101", which can be found, along with other resources and articles about Scottish names, at the Medieval Scotland website:
http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/medieval_scotland.html
If you do not have access to the Web, we can arrange to e-mail you a copy.
Your name was researched by Effric neyn Ken3ocht vc Harrald and Tangwystl ferch Morgant Glasvryn.
Sincerely,
Hartmann Rogge
Academy of S. Gabriel
(1) Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland, The New York Public Library, 1986.
(2) MacLysaght, Edward, The Surnames of Ireland, 6th ed., Irish Academic Press, 1985.
(3) Talan's list of feminine given names from Reaney, P.H., A Dictionary of British Surnames, 2nd ed., Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976.