Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 280

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 280

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/280

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

Greetings,

Here's the information we have on your two name ideas, "Kirk DaDearga" and "Seosaidh Colquhoun."

Before you read this letter, we recommend that you read the Web page "Scottish Names 101," which gives background information on Scottish names that will make understanding our comments much simpler. The URL is

http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scot_names_101.html

We have no reason to think that "Kirk" was a given name in period. It appears to be one of the many surnames that modern people have used as given names (Stanley, Percy, Gordon, and Neville are other examples of this).

"da Dearga" is a unique name, used only by the legendary character. We have no evidence that it was ever used by a historical human being, so we can't say that this is a historical name.

"Seosaidh" is a Gaelic form of the name "Joseph." We're not sure if it was used in period. The period Gaelic form was "Ioseph," and since we don't have examples of written Scottish Gaelic we don't know what the period Scottish Gaelic form would be.

Although they look very different all of these names were pronounced roughly like "YO-sayf" of "ZHO-sayf" in period. As far as we can tell, "Joseph" (with whatever spelling) was never a popular name for Gaelic-speakers in Scotland, but our sources make it difficult to be sure.

"Colquhoun" is a well-documented Scots name which comes from lands in Dumbartonshire. It wouldn't have been used by any Gaelic-speaking person in period. You should be aware that "clan names" as used today are a purely modern invention. In period, a name like "Macdonald" meant "son of Donald," not "part of the Macdonald clan." Anyone in any clan with a father named Donald was likely to be called "mac Donald." Scots names (like "Colquhoun") usually came from a person's place of origin, and anyone from that area might be called "Colquhoun." The modern system of clans wasn't used until well after our period.

So you have a couple of options. You could alter your persona's culture and home, and use the Scots name "Joseph Colquhoun." If you want a Gaelic name, we can work on that as well--we didn't want to do any research until we knew what you wanted.

Since "clans" and "clan arms" as we know them are basically a modern invention, you can choose whether or not to base your arms on the arms of the modern Colquhouns.

Scottish arms in period didn't use "Celtic" motifs. Although Scotland had a distinct heraldic style, it used the same kinds of artistic design used in heraldry elsewhere. Before you work on designing a coat of arms, you may find some information about heraldry useful. We recommend the following Web site for a good introduction:

http://web.hal.com/~goldschm/primer/

Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Arval D'Espas Nord contributed to this letter.

We hope this letter has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel