ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3123 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3123 ************************************ 27 Jul 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked if we could help you find a name meaning 'David, son of Dougal' which is pronounced \DEEV fed mac DOO cul\, and would be appropriate for someone living in either the Highlands or the Lowlands of Scotland in the 14th century. Here is the information we have found. As you know, starting around the 14th century, the two main languages spoken in Scotland were Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands and Western Isles, and Scots, spoken in the Lowlands, including the royal court and towns. Gaelic was the same language spoken in Ireland at this time; Scots was closely related to contemporary English. Norn (a form of Norse) as well as Scots was spoken in the Northern Isles through the 16th century. Because you said you were flexible about where your persona lives, we will discuss both Scots and Scottish Gaelic names in this letter. We have evidence that some form of was used in Scottish Gaelic in the 14th century [1], though because of the scarcity of written Scottish Gaelic records, we cannot say for sure how the name was spelled in Scottish Gaelic. It is likely that the name was spelled in Scottish Gaelic the same way it was spelled in Irish Gaelic at the same time. There were two standard forms of in Irish Gaelic: and (where the slash represents an acute accent over the previous letter.) [2] However, neither nor is pronounced like what you are looking for. was pronounced roughly \DOW-ee\ and was pronounced roughly \DAH-vee\. is a Scots form of the Scottish Gaelic name , which we find as in 1467. [1] The byname , meaning 'son of Dubghall', is a fine choice for your period. (The change from to is a requirement of Gaelic grammar; it's analogous to the change from to in English.) was pronounced roughly \mahk DOO-ghahl^\, where \gh\ is the voiced version of \kh\ found in Scottish and German , and \l^\ is the a palatalized , the sound of in the French word 'million' and Italian 'of the'. The standard Scots form of is ; we find a in 1296, as well as in the Latin patronymic 'son of David' in 1340. We also found an in 1296, whose seal has the name , so any of , or is a fine choice for the 14th century. (The in is pronounced \v\). [3,6] We were not able to find any Scots forms of which had an internal hard consonant in the final part. This is because the sequence \OO-ghah\ in \DOO-ghahl^\ very easily shifts to become \OO-wah\. The examples of Scots forms of that we found in and around your period include: [4] McDuhile, 1296 MacDowilt, 1296 MacDowile, 1306x1329 [5] MacDuel, 1307 MacDouyl, 1307 M'Douwille, 1312 McDowille, 1347, 1354 M'Kowele, 1370x80 Macdowylle, 1374 Macduoel, 1390 Makdowelle, 1391 Macduyl, 1416 In conclusion, we can recommend both and as possible names for a 14th century Scottish Gaelic man; in Scots, his name might have been recorded as . We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Maridonna Benvenuti, Mari neyn Brian, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Ursula Georges, Juliana de Luna, and Eleyne de Comnocke. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 27 July 2006 -- References: [1] Krossa, Sharon L., "Scottish Gaelic Given Names" (WWW: privately published, 2000-2002) http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven/ [2] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2006). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/ [3] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. David, Davidson [4] ibid., s.nn. Dougal, MacDougal, MacDoual [5] The notation '1306x1326' indicates that the source is from sometim e between 1306 and 1326, but a more precise date cannot be made. [6] Symon Freser of Lovat, "13th & 14th Century Scottish Names" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/scottish14/