ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2920 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2920 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 24 Oct 2004 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an Irishman before 1000. You also asked for information about surnames, particularly one meaning "of the falcons", "of the beautiful marshes", or "of Clann Preachain". Here is what we have found. We apologize for the time it has taken to answer your question. As we explained earlier, the Irish language before the late 7th century was substantially different from its later medieval form. This letter assumes that you want a name suitable for the 8th to 10th centuries. If you are particularly interested in an earlier period, write again and we'll do our best to assist you. or is a modern Irish adaptation of the name : It appears in modern Irish name dictionaries, but the earliest possible example we've found is from the late 18th century [1, 2, 3]. Note that in modern Irish, the name is pronounced roughly \AHN-tuh-nyuh\, not \AN-thuh-nee\. We have found a handful of examples of forms of in early Irish records, spelled in Irish and in Latin [7, 8, 9]. The slash in represents an acute accent mark over the preceding letter. It isn't clear that any of these examples refer to Irishman, but they do tell us how the name was written in medieval Irish. The Irish form of the name would have been pronounced \AHN-tohn\, where \oh\ stands for the vowel in . Given the scant evidence, we recommend that you choose a different name. You might be interested in the Irish name , pronounced roughly \WAYTH-nyuh\ in your period. This is a native Irish name, used at least from the 10th century to the end of our period [4]. It is etymologically unrelated to ; but in 16th century Irish records, it was sometimes translated into English as [5, 6], probably because of some similarity in pronunciation. In Ireland throughout our period, the overwhelmingly most common type of surname was one that identified a man as his father's son. Uaithne son of Domnall was called , which simply means "Uaithne Domnall's son". The extra 'i' in is required by Irish grammar: It serves the same purpose as <'s> in English. You can find a list of given names appropriate for your father in this article: 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100/ After in your name, you want to use the genitive (possessive) form of your father's name. Once you've chosen that name, we'll be happy to give you the correct pronunciation. The Irish did occasionally use descriptive surnames, but they weren't nearly as common as in English and they tended to be very straightforward. Bynames based on types of animals were extremely rare and we've found none based on birds, so "of the falcons" isn't a good choice. Bynames based on placenames or descriptions of places were a bit more common, but still rare. Bynames like "of the lake" are found in late-period Irish records, but we haven't found examples in your period. Even in late period, they were very simple: "of the marsh" is plausible for the 15th or 16th century, but "of the beautiful marshes" doesn't fit any pattern that we've seen in Irish names [10] Bynames that indicated clan membership were just coming into use in 10th century Ireland, and became popular in the 11th [11]. If Uaithne in our earlier example were a member of the Hua Ruaircc clan (O Rourke), then he might also be known as , pronounced roughly \OO@th-n^@ OO@ ROO-ahrk\, where the \@\ is the sound of in or , and \n^\ is the sound of in . We don't recognize as an Irish clan name; so if you're interested in this possibility, please contact us for further assistance. 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 Mari neyn Brian, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Ursula Georges, Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, and Mor inghean Cathaill. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 24 Oct 2004 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Coghlan, Ronan, _Irish Christian Names_ (London: Johnston and Bacon, 1979), s.n. Anthony. [2] Woulfe, Patrick, _Irish Names for Children_ (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1974), s.n. Antoine. [3] "Antaine Rafteiri/, an File" (WWW: St Louis Community School, Kiltimagh, accessed 18 Oct 2004). We can't be certain that the spelling appears in 18th century documents. http://www.iol.ie/~stlsmayo/rafteiri.htm [4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Uaithne. [5] Mavis Cournane, Donnchadh O/ Corra/in, ed., "Annals of the Four Masters, Volume 5" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1998), entry M1510.5. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005E/. [6] Beatrix Fa"rber, Peter Flynn, ed., "Annals of the Four Masters, Volume 6" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 2000), entry M1593.12. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005F/. [7] We found three references to the translation of the relics of Saint Antony the Monk to Alexandria, Egypt, in the 6th century. These entries are all in Latin. Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entry U531.1. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001/ O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh, ed., "Annals of Tigernach" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1996), entry T528.1. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100002/ Donnchadh O/ Corra/in, ed., "Annals of Inisfallen" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 2000), entry I529.1. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100004/ [8] O/ Riain, Pa/draig, ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1985). Two entries give the names and . The latter might be the same monk mentioned in note [7]. [9] We also found a 16th century Irish mention of an Englishman named . His name appears in Irish as . Mavis Cournane, Donnchadh O/ Corra/in, ed., "Annals of the Four Masters, Volume 5" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1998), entry M1564.4. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005E/. [10] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Masculine Descriptive Bynames" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/DescriptiveBynames/ [11] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.v. ua. ------- Correction by Aryanhwy 10 June 2006: Corrected pronunciation of and .