ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2961 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2961 ************************************ 22 Feb 2005 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 16th century Scottish Highlander. Here is what we have found. Your given name, , is one of many spellings of the Gaelic adaptation of . The name itself was certainly used by Gaelic-speaking Highlanders in your period [1]; however, we're not sure that this particular spelling was used in period. We do not have an example of this name written in Gaelic in Scottish sources -- Gaelic was rarely used as a written language in period Scotland -- so we can't be certain how it was spelled there. In late-period Irish sources, the name appears most often as , , or [4], but in your period these were archaic spellings, found in scholarly sources. (The slash in the name indicates an acute accent mark over the preceding letter.) In general use, the name was usually written [2] and occasionally [3]. We found one example in Irish records of [5]; this is also one of the standard modern Scottish Gaelic spellings of the name [6, 7]. We suspect was the most common spelling in late-period Scottish Gaelic, but is also appropriate. In any of these spellings, the name was pronounced approximately \SHAY-muss\ [8]. The surname is a fine choice, though this particular spelling may not be. It is a Gaelic form of the name most common today in its English from, . It appears in an early 16th century Scottish source, written in Gaelic but using English-style spelling, as [9]. The element is an abbreviation for "the", and we do not know when Scottish Gaels started to use this abbreviation. Contemporary Irish records spell out that word, e.g. 1532 [10], so we recommend you spell your surname . Your surname derives from a Gaelic phrase that means "son of the parson" [9]. In Gaelic in our period, Mac- surnames were used literally: A man would have been identified in Gaelic as only if his father were in fact a parson. The custom of using Mac- surnames to indicate clan membership did not arise in Gaelic until well after our period. 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, Talan Gwynek, and Effrick neyn Kenneoch. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 22 Feb 2005 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Krossa, Sharon L., "Scottish Gaelic Given Names" (WWW: privately published, 2000-2002) http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven/ [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Se/amus. [3] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in, ed., "Annals of Inisfallen" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 2000), entry I1450.5. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100004/ [4] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002), s.n. Se/amus http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/ [5] Beatrix Fa"rber et. al. (CELT team) ed., "Annals of Loch Ce/ A.D.1014-1590" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 2003), entry LC1580.8. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100010B/ [6] Morgan, Peadar, _Ainmean Chloinne: Scottish Gaelic Names for Children_ (Scotland: Taigh na Teud Music Publishers, 1989), s.n. Seumas. [7] Dictionary of the Scots Language (WWW: 2004), s.v. Hamish. http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/ [8] More precisely, was pronounced \S^AY-m@ss\, where \S^\ represents a palatalized \S\ sound, i.e. one pronounced while arching the tongue so that it touches the upper palate. The result sounds like trying to pronounce \S\ and the \Y\ in at the same time. \@\ stands for the sound of the in . [9] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. MacPherson. Black's example comes from the Book of the Dean of Lismore. [10] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters, vol. 2", six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98), entry M1532.2. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005B/.