ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3132 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3132 ************************************ 21 Aug 2006 From: Guaire mac Guaire Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about as a Gaelic name for a native Irish woman living between 1250 and 1450. You also requested that if the proposed name is not suitable, we should suggest a suitable one as similar in sound as possible. The English name was adopted into Gaelic as , which we find in 1441, 1505, and 1583. [1] The slash indicates an acute accent over the previous letter. The name was pronounced roughly as \EE-shih-bayl\. is a variant of , a modern English form of the Gaelic byname 'son of Beathan'. [2] The corresponding feminine form of this byname is 'daughter of Beathan'. However, we have no dated citations of either the Irish or the English form. We therefore recommend you do not use as a byname for a native Irish woman in the period you specified. In searching for possible alternatives, we constructed , pronounced roughly \EE-shih-bayl VAHN\, essentially meaning "Isabel the white." [3] This is the closest we could find in sound and it could be an appropriate name for a native Irish woman living between 1250 and 1450. We recommend that you review the basic construction of Gaelic bynames as practiced in both Gaelic Scotland and Ireland throughout the Middle Ages and that you select a patronymic or descriptive byname for your Irish persona. We will be happy to review your selection for authenticity. A recommended guide for Irish Gaelic names may be found in "Quick and Easy Gaelic Names" at: http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ I hope this letter has been useful. Please write to 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 Adelaide de Beaumont, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Mari neyn Brian, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Guaire mac Guaire 21 August 2006 ----------- References: [1] 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/Feminine/Isibel.shtml [2] Macbain, Alexander, _Etymological Dictionary of Scottish-Gaelic_, 2nd ed. (Orig. publ 1907(?); reprint New York: Hippocrene, 1998), p. 405; s.n. . [3] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, op. cit.; s.n. . Reference shows in 858, 1328, 1337, 1398, 1404, 1433, 1434, 1509, 1515, and 1583. Although there are no examples of used by a woman, there are examples of feminine descriptive bynames include 'freckled' and 'black'. Therefore, 'white, fair' is certainly a potential period byname construction.