|
Greetings,
Before reading this letter, we recommend that you read the Web page "Scottish Names 101" at
http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scot_names_101.html
This will explain the differences between Gaelic and Scots names, which are crucial to this name.
The two names you've found are actually two forms of the same Gaelic name. We found the spellings Ruaidri (1467) and Ruadri (1130) for it. Despite the "d," this name is pronounced something like "Rory."
"Ruarie" is a modern form of this name. We don't know when it was first used, but we're confident that it's modern because it combines "ua," which is a feature of Gaelic, and an "ie" ending, which is a feature of Scots. People who spoke either Gaelic or Scots would not spelled a name in this way, but a modern English-speaker who doesn't know Gaelic or Scots might think that mixing Gaelic and Scots is reasonable.
"Ruairidh" is the modern Scots Gaelic spelling of "Ruaidri." It's not actually a form of "Roderick," but it's often used as an equivalent.
"Ruaidri" would be a perfectly reasonable Gaelic name for the late 15th century. There are a number of written Scots forms from your period, including:
All our citations came from "The Surnames of Scotland" by George Black.
Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, and Arval D'Espas Nord contributed to this letter.
We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.
In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel