ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3184 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3184 ************************************ 20 Sep 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if 'Cian son of Segdai of the clan of Niall' is an appropriate name for an Irishman living in the 10th or 11th century. Here is what we've found. With a few minor changes, which we'll discuss below, you've chosen a fine name. We found examples of the masculine name in 867, 1012, 1014, and 1090, so it's a fine choice for your given name. [1,2] is the genitive (possessive) form of the name , where the slash represents an acute accent over the previous letter. was a relatively rare name, though we found an example of in 939, and of the clan byname in 1095-6. [1,3,4] However, is not the correct byname meaning 'son of Se/gdae'. The appropriate byname is . The spelling is also not quite the correct form of the clan name; the form you want is . [2,4] Surnames that indicated clan membership came into use in Ireland in the late 10th century and became common in the 11th. [6] We have examples of this clan surname in the 10th and 12th centuries: [5] Domnall H. Neill 963 Muircertach h-Ua Neill 1160 Based on this, we can recommend as an excellent name for your period. This name would have been pronounced roughly \KEE-@n mahk SHAYGH-dh@ wee N^AYL^\, where: \@\ is the sound of in or \GH\ is the voiced version of \kh\, the sound of in Scottish \dh\ is the sound of in \N^\ is the sound of in \L^\ is the sound of in French or in Italian 'of the' 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, Talan Gwynek, and Ari Ansson. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 20 September 2006 -- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. Cian, Se/gdae [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] 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), entries M939.7, M1095.4, M1096.13. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005B [4] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.v. ua notes that does not usually have an accent on the final [5] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entries U963.1, U1160.6. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001A/ [6] 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/