ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2875 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2875 ************************************ 31 Oct 2004 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a man in Morven, Scotland around 1300. Here is what we have found. We apologize for the time it has taken to answer your question. The linguistic history of the area that became modern Scotland is very complex. In your period, the main languages of Scotland were Norse, Gaelic, English, and Anglo-Norman French, distributed roughly as follows: Norse, spoken in the far north and the Western Isles; English, spoken mainly in the southeast; Gaelic, spoken through much of the country; and Norman French, spoken by Anglo-Norman settlers and their Scoto-Norman descendents, mostly in the south. The languages were very different and had different naming customs. There was some mixing of names from the different cultures, but most names were not adopted into all of the cultures. Therefore, the culture you choose for your persona will determine how your name should be constructed. Morven is in Argyllshire, which was Gaelic speaking until well after the end of the Society's period [1]. Gaelic was rarely used as a written language in medieval Scotland, so we will also discuss written forms of your name in other languages. is an English name, of course. It was adopted into Gaelic quite early, though; we have evidence of its use by Scottish Gaels in the 14th century and by Irish Gaels in the 13th and 14th centuries. In a Scottish Gaelic document form the middle of the 15th century, the name was written [9]. In references to Gaels in 13th and 14th century Irish sources, the name was spelled and [2, 3, 4, 5]. The standardized medieval Gaelic spelling is . In your period, the name was probably pronounced \ROH-behrt\ in Scottish Gaelic. is a modern English surname derived from the Gaelic patronymic "son of Aonghus". A patronymic is a byname (surname) that identifies you as your father's son. In Scottish Gaelic in our period, surnames were used literally, so a man was called only if his father's given name was . The custom of using surnames to indicate clan membership did not develop until well after our period. is a fine choice for your father's name [2, 6], and thus is a fine name for an Argyllshire Gael around 1300. This name was pronounced roughly \ROH-behrt mahk IN-ish\. As we noted earlier, Gaelic was rarely used as a written language in your period. If your name had been written, it would most likely have been in Latin; but might also have been in English. In Latin, your name might have been written ; in English, it might have been or [7, 8]. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Jillian Saint Andre, Roberd mac Cormaic, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 31 Oct 2004 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] McNeill, Peter G. B., and Hector L. MacQueen, Editors, _Atlas of Scottish History to 1707_ (Edinburgh: The Scottish Medievalists and Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, 1996), pp.58-60. [2] Krossa, Sharon L., "Scottish Gaelic Given Names" (WWW: privately published, 2000-2002) http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven/ [3] Munro, Jean, and R.W. Munro. Acts of the Lords of the Isles: 1336-1493, Scottish History Society, 4th Series, vol. 22. Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1986. We found mention of a Gael named in this source. [4] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entries U1276.5, U1279.4, and others. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001/. [5] Stephen Beechinor, Beatrix Fa"rber, Daithi/ O/ Corra/in, ed., "Annals of the Four Masters, Volume 3" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 2000), entry M1322.3 and others. [6] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Macinnes. A Scots-language rendering of two Gaelic names, and in Dunoon, 1574, shows that the name was still in use in Argyll in the 16th century. [7] Black s.nn. Macerchar, Macedolf. Under the former headword, Black has 1292. Under the latter, he has and 1271, showing use of both and in non-Gaelic transcriptions of Gaelic names. [8] John D. MacLaughlin, The Anradan Kindred Revisited (WWW: privately published, accessed 25 oct 2004). http://members.aol.com/lochlan/anradan.htm This page quotes a Latin document of 1269 mentioning in the genitive one "Lord Angus son of Donald". [9] Skene, William F., "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 1. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, with a Translation," in Colectanea de Rebus Albanicis consisting of Original Papers and Documents Relating to the History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, edited by The Iona Club, pp. 50-62 & 357-360. Edinburgh: Thomas G. Stevenson, 1847.