ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3290 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3290 ************************************ 2 Apr 2007 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if a Gaelic name meaning "Robert of Loch Torridon son of Malcolm" would be authentic for a Scottish Highlander living in the 13th or 14th centuries. Here is what we have found. As you know, bynames referring to specific places were not used in Scottish Gaelic names (though a Gaelic man whose name was recorded in a Latin or Scots document may have had a locative byname). [1,2] For an authentic Gaelic-language name, we recommend that you do not use a reference to Loch Torridon. There are not many records of Scottish Gaelic names in Gaelic-language documents which date before 1600. Because of this, we do not have the clearest picture of what names were in use when, or what spellings were used. As a result, we've supplemented some of our discussions below with information from Irish Gaelic; the languages were similar, as were the name pools. We do not have clear information about how was adopted into Scottish Gaelic (though we know that it was at least by the 14th century). [3] In Irish Gaelic, was adopted as or (where the slash represents an acute accent over the previous letter). [4] It's reasonable to assume that this spelling is also approriate for Scottish Gaelic. The Gaelic root of the Scots name is . We have Scottish Gaelic examples of this name in the 12th century, and then again in the 15th and 16th centuries [3,6], and Irish Gaelic examples in the 12th and 13th centuries. [4] Various examples of which occur in 13th century Scottish records probably also represent Gaelic-speakers named . [5] Based on this, we believe is a fine choice for a 14th-century Scottish Gael. (The change from to in the byname is a requirement of Gaelic grammar, analogous to the change from to in English.) The name would've been pronounced roughly \ROH-b^art mahk MU*L^ KHOH-l@m\, where \b^\ is a palatalized , like the at the beginning of . \U*\ is the vowel you get by pronouncing the in with your lips positioned as if you were saying as in . \L^\ is a palatalized , the sound of in French and Italian . \KH\ is the sound of in Scottish or German . \@\ is the sound of in or . 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, Talan Gwynek, Mari neyn Brian, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 02 April 2007 -- References: [1] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Scottish Names 101 (2nd Edition)", (WWW: Privately published, 20 Aug 1998). http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/scotnames101.shtml [2] Academy of S. Gabriel Report #2401 http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/2401 [3] Krossa, Sharon L., "Scottish Gaelic Given Names" (WWW: privately published, 2000-2002) http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven/. [4] 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/ [5] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Malcolm. [6] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Names", (WWW: Privately published, 18 June 1997). http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.shtml