Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 286

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 286

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/286

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 found on the name "Rebecca MacIver" and the arms you described. We'll warn you that we don't look at whether a name is "legal;" we determine whether it's appropriate for your period.

Before you read this letter, we recommend that you read some background information on Scottish names, on the Web at

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

The background information there is necessary to understanding this letter.

All of the people who posted replies to you on the Rialto are also members of the Academy, so you've already heard what we can tell you about your name. "Rebecca MacIver" might possibly be an appropriate Scots name for the 16th century, but it's not historical for the 14th century, nor is it a Gaelic name.

"Rebecca" was used only after the Reformation in England. We don't have any examples of it from Scotland, but it's possible that it was used by Scots speakers in the 16th century. The Academy library has several lists of period women's names, which might give you some ideas for names.

"MacIver" is a modern form of the Gaelic name "mac Imhair," meaning "son of Imhair." Because it means "son of," it wouldn't be used by a Gaelic woman--the appropriate Gaelic form would be "inghean Imhair."

"MacIver" is similar to a Scots written form of the name, but we didn't find the spelling "MacIver" in period. We did find many other spellings of the name, including (with date):

It's possible that your lord was able to find documentation that we didn't.

Since this name means "son of..." it wouldn't have been used by a Gaelicspeaking woman at any point. It's possible that a late-period Scotsspeaking woman could have been born in or married into a Scots family which used a name like "MacIver."

Your arms (which are described "Azure, on a plate a wolf sable,") are not consistent with medieval design. Coats of arms which puts a charge in a "frame" like a circle or a square are very rare in medieval heraldry, and are particularly rare in the British Isles. To make your arms more consistent with medieval style, we would suggest dividing the background between blue and white (for example, making the left half white and the right half blue), and putting a wolf on that. We can also mention that in period, wolves generally appeared in one of two positions--either rampant (standing upright on one leg, with paws out) or passant (standing on three legs, with one front paw slightly raised). Most heraldry books will have illustrations of "rampant" and "passant" if these descriptions aren't clear.

If you would like more specific suggestions about arms, let us know what elements are important in your arms and we'll make some other suggestions. You could also send one or more designs back to us, and we could comment on them.

Arval D'Espas Nord, Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Evan da Collaureo, Elsbeth Anne Ross, Talan Gwynek, and Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to work with you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel