ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3102 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3102 ************************************ From: Clare Baldock 21 Dec 2005 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about Gaelic and English language names for an Irish woman, Fionnghuala, who has married an Englishman, Gerald FitzDavid, around 1500. We'll discuss the Gaelic version of your name first, and then talk about how it might have appeared in English. As we said in our previous reply, is a fine name for an Irish Gaelic woman after 1250 [1]. A woman in your time period would probably be known on occasion as her father's daughter, on occasion as her husband's wife, and, if a complete formal identification was required, as both. An example of this last form of a woman's name from 1421 is [1]: Mo/r ingen Briain Ui/ Bhriain bean Aater A Bu/rc Mor daughter [of] Brian O' Brian wife [of] Walter Burke Throughout this letter a / indicates an acute accent on the preceding letter. If you wish to construct a name referring to your father, you would need to choose a name for your father and we could help with the right form for your time period. A good source of Irish names is Mari Elspeth nic Bryan's "Index of Names in Irish Annals" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/. Please write again if you wish help to pursue this option. Your husband, , might have been referred to in a Gaelic context as [1]. is Gaelic for "son" which is the meaning of in English names [2, 3]. Irish grammar requires that the name undergo certain changes when it is used as part of a wife's or daughter's byname. First, the given name and the word 'son' must be put into the genitive case; the English equivalent is changing to in the phrase . As it happens, is one of the comparatively rare names that don't change when put into the genitive case, but becomes . Secondly, all three elements of the man's name potentially undergo a change called 'lenition', a softening of the initial sound of the word. The rules governing lenition are a bit complicated, but in this case it turns out that all three elements are lenited. When ordinary Roman letters are used, this is indicated by adding an after the initial letter giving: 'Fionnghuala, wife of Gearo/id mac Daui/dh', where is the Irish for 'wife' [4]. This name would have been pronounced roughly \fy@-NOO-@-l@ ben YEH-road^ vih-KAH-vee\. \@\ represents the sound of in and , \OO\ represents the sound of in , \oa\ is as in . \d^\ is a palatised \d\ which represents a sound that is a little difficult to describe. An ordinary \d\ sound is made with just the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. A palatalized \d\ sound, written \d^\, is made with the whole front part of the blade of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, as if one were trying to say \d\ (as in ) and \y\ (as in ) simultaneously. We have no evidence of Anglo-Irish women taking their husband's names, but there is evidence of this practice becoming common in England by your time period [5]. We also found no references in Ireland in English to a woman with the Gaelic name , however there are references found of a Scottish Gaelic woman, married to an Irishman, in English legal records [6]: Fynwall 1571 Finnola 1586 is found in England throughout our period, and follows the general pattern of surnames with found in England, so the name is unremarkable in an English context [3, 7]. You might have been known as or in England. We cannot recommend this name as the best possible recreation among the Anglo-Irish as we have no records of women taking their husband's surname in English speaking contexts in Ireland. In summary, Fionnghula, an Irish woman in the 1500's married to Gerald FitzDavid, an Englishman, could have been known as in Ireland and in England. I 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 Ursula Georges, Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Arval Benicoeur, Adelaide de Beaumont and Mari neyn Brian. For the Academy, Eleyne de Comnocke 21 December 2005 ----------- References: [1] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/ s.nn Fionnghuala, Gearo/id, Daui/d, Mo/r [2] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Quick and Easy Gaelic Names (3rd Edition)" (WWW: Privately published, 22 Jun 2001) http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ [3] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995) s.n Fitz [4] Adelaide de Beaumont, "Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 2501" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2002) http://www.s-gabriel.org/2501 [5] McKinley, Richard. _The Surnames of Oxfordshire_, English Surnames Series III (London: Leopard's Head Press, 1977) p. 191 [6] Krossa, Sharon L., "Scottish Gaelic Given Names" (WWW: privately published, 2000-2002) http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven/ s.n Fionnghuala [7] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) s.n David