ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3281
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3281
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4 Apr 2007
From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael 

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You wanted to know if <Fearadach mac Dhubhghaill> is an authentic name
for a 12th to 14th century Scottish Gaelic man.  Here is what we have
found.

We don't have many sources for Gaelic names in Scotland, but we do
have an early 12th century reference to a man named <Feradac mac Mal
Brici/> (where the slash represents an acute accent over the previous
letter). [1]  <Feradac> is a variant spelling of <Feradach>, the
standard pre c. 1200 spelling of the name.  We therefore can recommend
<Feradach> as a fine choice for the early part of your husband's
period.  In the later part, if the name was used, it would have been
spelled <Fearadhach>.  This name was used in Ireland in both early and
later period, so we would not be surprised if it was used in Scotland
beyond this one early 12th century example that we have. [2]

The byname <mac Dhubhghaill> 'son of Dubhghall' is a variant of <mac
Dubhghaill> which arose towards the end of the SCA's period.  While we
do not have any Gaelic instances of <Dubhghall> from your husband's
period [3], we do have the following examples from non-Gaelic records: [4]

  Dufgal     c.1128
  Duuegall   c.1208-14
  Duuegallus c.1208-33
  Dugall     1261

All of these names likely represent Gaelic <Dubhghall>.  We also have
one example of <Dubhghall> in Ireland in 1268. [2]  Based on this, we
can recommend <mac Dubhghaill> for your husband's period.  

<During this period, the name <Fearadhach mac Dubhghaill> would have
been pronounced roughly \FYAR-@-gh@kh mahk DOOBH-ghahl^\, where \@\ is
the sound of <a> in <soda> or <about>, \kh\ is the sound of <ch> in
Scottish <loch> or German <Bach>, and \gh\ is the voiced version of
\kh\.  \BH\ is the sound of <b> or <v> in Spanish <lobo> and <uva>,
and \l~\ is the final sound of Italian <degli> 'of the'. [5]

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 Mari neyn Brian and Talan Gwynek.

For the Academy,
-Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 04 April 2007

--
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] Our earliest come from the 15th and 16th centuries. [3]

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

[5] It's possible that by the end of the 14th century, <Fearadhach> 
was pronounced closer to \FYAR-ikh\.