ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3207
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3207
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30 Oct 2006
From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael 

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You wanted to know if <James>, <Arthur>, or <Alexander> are suitable
names for a Scots man living in the mid 14th to mid 15th centuries,
and whether <Killgannon>, which you found in a novel, is an authentic
surname for this period.  You also asked for information about
armorial designs from this period.  Here is what we have found.

Any of the three given names are fine; in the 13th and 14th centuries
we find the names <Iames>, <Iamys>, <Alexander>, <Alexandir>, and
<Alysandir>, and in 1435 we find one <Arthur of Kyncorth>. [1,2]

As you're probably aware, chosing a surname from a modern novel is
generally not a reliable way of picking an authentic medieval name. 
As it happens, <Killgannon> is a modern Irish surname.  The root of
<Killgannon> is the Gaelic byname <mac Giolla Ghanna/in> (where the
slash represents an acute accent over the previous letter). [4]  A
Gaelic byname would not be appropriate for a Lowland Scots man, and so
we recommend that you pick a different byname.  You can find suitable
choices in reference [1].

Scottish armory has been studied in detail and so we can give you
quite a bit of information about typical patterns and charges. [3]

  - animate charges are in 40% of 13th-15th C armory, and 31% of 
    14th-16th C armory; heads of animals make up 38% of the 31%, and 
    lions make up 42% of the 31%.
  - buckles, cinquefoils, escutcheons, and roses are found with some 
    frequency
  - cinquefoils are found with some frequency
  - the most common types of crosses are crosslet, formy, and 
    moline; crosses crosslet most common as secondary charges, and 
    crosses moline as primaries.
  - escallops are found with some frequency, often as tertiaries
  - mascles are common as primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries.
  - mullets are extremely common; of arms with mullets 17% have them 
    as primaries, 20% as secondaries, and 42% as tertiaries.
  - ordinaries are often checky.  The fess is the most common in
    14th-16th C armory (15%).
  - otter's heads are more common than elsewhere, though still rare.

The most common overall compositional elements for Scots armory are: [3]

  - sole ordinary with secondary charge group (18%)
  - group of multiple non-ordinary primary charges (16%)
  - single non-ordinary primary (10%)
  - single ordinary with tertiary (9%)
  - single ordinary (8%)

The most popular tincture in 14th-16th C Scots armory is argent (66%),
with the most popular color begin gules (41%). [3]  42% of fields are
plain argent, and 21% of tincture combinations are argent and sable,
and 23% argent and gules. [3]  Based on this, we recommend designs
like the following as being very typical of Scottish style:

  Argent, a fess between three X gules
  Argent, on a fess between three X gules, three Y argent
  Argent, a fess checky gules and Or between three X gules

Here "X" can be filled in with any of crosses crosslet, buckles,
cinquefoils, escutcheons, mascles, mullets, or roses, and "Y" with any
of escallops, mascles, or mullets.

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.  Additional research and commentary on this letter
was provided by Maridonna Benvenuti and Adelaide de Beaumont.

For the Academy,
-Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 30 October 2006

--
References:

[1] Symon Freser of Lovat, "13th & 14th Century Scottish Names" (WWW:
Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996).
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/symonFreser/scottish14/

[2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning
and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Arthur 

[3] Zenobia Naphtali, "Regional Style" in Proceedings of the Known
World Heraldic Symposium, 1996, Montgomery, Alabama (SCA, Inc., 1996).

[4] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish
Academic Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3), s.n. (Mac) Kilgannon