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 <Robert MacInnes> 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.

<Robert> 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 <Robert> [9].  In references to Gaels in 13th and
14th century Irish sources, the name was spelled <Roibert> and
<Roiberd> [2, 3, 4, 5].  The standardized medieval Gaelic spelling is
<Roibeard>.  In your period, the name was probably pronounced
\ROH-behrt\ in Scottish Gaelic.

<MacInnes> is a modern English surname derived from the Gaelic
patronymic <mac Aonghuis> "son of Aonghus".  A patronymic is a byname
(surname) that identifies you as your father's son.  In Scottish
Gaelic in our period, <Mac-> surnames were used literally, so a man
was called <mac Aonghuis> only if his father's given name was
<Aonghus>.  The custom of using <Mac-> surnames to indicate clan
membership did not develop until well after our period.  

<Aonghus> is a fine choice for your father's name [2, 6], and thus
<Roibeard mac Aonghuis> 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 <Robertus filius Engussii>; in English,
it might have been <Robert McEnegus> or <Robert MacEnegus> [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
<Robert> 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,
<Allester M'Callen M'Aneiss> and <John dow M'Aneiss> in Dunoon, 1574,
shows that the name <Aonghus> was still in use in Argyll in the 16th
century.

[7] Black s.nn. Macerchar, Macedolf.  Under the former headword, Black
has <Enegus McErewar> 1292.  Under the latter, he has <Gillemichel
MacEdolf> and <Gilmychel MacHedolf> 1271, showing use of both <Mc->
and <Mac-> 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 <Domini Engussii filii Dovenaldi> "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.