ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3204 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3204 ************************************ 24 Oct 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a Gaelic man living around 1340. (In this letter, we're using the / to represent an acute accent over the previous letter and {ae} to represent the a-e ligature.) Here is what we have found. is a modern form of a name which we find in 939 and between 1127 and 1134; during this period, the appropriate spelling is . [1,2] We haven't found any pre-modern examples of after the 12th century, and so we cannot recommend it as a good choice for the 14th century. If you are interested in moving your persona 200 years earlier, then is a fine choice for your given name. During the 12th century, was pronounced between \SHAYGH-dh@\ and \SHAYGH-gh@\, where \dh\ is the sound of in , \@\ is the sound of in or , and \gh\ is the voiced version of \kh\, the sound of in Scottish . The spelling is also not quite correct; the a-e ligature was not used in Gaelic. The standard early period spelling (before c. 1200) of the name is , pronounced roughly \FEH-lahn\. was fairly common in the 7th through 11th centuries, but from the 12th century on it became increasingly rare. [2] However, we did find one 14th century example of the name, as well as a man who died in 1423. [3,4] During the 14th and 15th centuries, the standard spelling of the name is . For the 12th century, 'Se/gda son of Fa/ela/n' is a fine name. (The change from to is analogous to the change from to in English.) was pronounced roughly \mahk FEH-lahn^\, where \n^\ is the sound of in French 'mountain'. For the mid 14th century, we recommend that you chose a different given name. You can find a list of suitable choices here: "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Masculine Given Names: 1301-1400" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/1301-1400.shtml During this period, the appropriate byname meaning 'son of Faola/n' is . If you are interested in a 14th-century name using this as your byname, then once you've chosen your given name we'll be happy to give you a pronunciation for the entire name (note that is not pronounced the same 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 Rian mag Uidir, Arval Benicoeur, Mari neyn Brian, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 24 October 2006 -- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. 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] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Names and Naming Practices in the Red Book of Ormond" (SCA, Inc: Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings, Tir Ysgithir, 1998; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/lateirish/ormond.html [4] Beechinor, Stephen, Eoin Dunford, Beatrix Fa"rber, Philip Irwin, Elva Johnston, Julianne Nyhan, ed., "Annals of the Four Masters, Volume 4" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 2000), entries M1373-M1493. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005D/. M1423.8 Faola/n Mac an Gobhann