Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 353

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 353

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/353

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we have on 15th-century Irish names. We weren't sure what information you wanted so we guessed based on what you told us. We'll give some general information, talk about the names of couples, and add some information about your mundane names.

In 15th-century Ireland, people generally didn't use inherited surnames. People were identified with "bynames" that changed depending on the situation. The same person might be known by two or more names, sometimes at the same time.

As you might expect, different bynames were often used in different families. Since "family names" as we understand them didn't yet exist, there was no expectation that a wife would use the same byname as her husband.

Most Irish bynames came from the name of male ancestors. Men were often known as "mac <father's name>" or "son of <father>." Women were often known as "inghean <father's name>" or "daughter of <father>." If you used names like these, your personas would have different bynames.

A third form used by both men and women was "ó <ancestor's name>" (the "ó" represents an accented "o"), which evolved into the modern "o." This indicated some relationship other than direct parentage--it could be used by grandchildren, nieces and nephews, illegitimate children, in-laws, and others. If you and your husband wanted to have the same byname, you could both use a name with "ó."

There are many Irish names to choose from, but we found one that was a source of your modern surname. There are several names in England and Ireland which evolved into "Melcombe," but one of them is based on the Irish name "Maolcholuim" (modern English "Malcolm"). You could both use "ó Maolcholuim," which means "Malcolm's descendant."

We didn't have as much success with given names--we weren't able to find medieval Irish forms of any of your or your husband's names. The best book for Irish given names is "Irish Names" by O'Corrain & Maguire. Although they don't date their names, anything with is described as "medieval" or "late" is most likely appropriate to your persona; names which are described as "early" most likely are not. If you find specific names, we can try to find out whether they were used in the 15th century. If you can't find this book (which is in many libraries), we can help you find a name if you give us some idea of where to start--even a starting letter gives us a place to begin.

Talan Gwynek, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Daniel de Lincoln, and Arval D'Espas Nord contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel