Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 365

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 365

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/365

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 "Alric mac Ruadhri," which you'd like to use as a 12th-century Scottish Gaelic name.

Before going on, we recommend that you read the Web page "Scottish Names 101" at

http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scot_names_101.html

This gives background information on Scottish naming practices, and we'll assume that you have read it.

"Alric" is not a Scottish Gaelic name. It is found in several Germanic languages, including English and German. We found several examples of "Alric" from 12th-century England. (1)

"mac Ruadhri" is a Gaelic name from your period, but it has no relationship to "Rogers." In modern times, many Scottish people wanted to have Gaelic names so they "translated" their names into Gaelic. The very old Gaelic name "Ruadhri" was chosen as an English equivalent of "Roger", so "Rogers" was translated as "mac Ruadhri". However, this translation has no historical basis.

If you want to use "mac Ruadhri", it is entirely appropriate for your period, but it is not related to "Rogers" in any way.

The forms of "Ruadri" and "mac Ruadhri" that we found around your period include: (2)

"Rogers" is an English name which means "Roger's son." In the 12th century, the most common ways to say "Alric, Roger's son" would be "Alric Roger" and "Alric fitz Roger."

So you have a couple of options. If you want to stay with your original name concept, you could use the English name "Alric fitz Roger" or "Alric Roger" (the written Latin form of this name would be "Alricus filius Rogeri.") If you want to have a Scottish Gaelic name, you can use a Gaelic given name with "mac Ruadhri" in any of the spellings we found above.

Regarding your device, we're going to start with some background information about medieval heraldry.

Despite all the references to them, "family arms" don't exist in British heraldry. Arms belong to an individual and are inherited by his descendants. So any "Rogers" arms belong to an individual person named "Rogers," not to the "Rogers family." Unless you're a male-line descendant of a specific person with arms, you have no right to those arms. You can still use arms which are based on an existing set of "Rogers" arms, but you probably don't have any actual connection to the person who carries those arms.

Second, heraldry wasn't used in 12th-century Scotland, and was just catching on in 12th-century England. It's likely that your persona wouldn't have had arms. That doesn't mean that you can't use them-- many SCA people with "non-heraldic" personas use arms anyway--but you should be aware of the history. We have more information at

http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq/nonheraldic.html

Now, back to your arms. The arms you started with aren't medieval, and they include things that aren't found in medieval heraldry. The first is the upside-down "Y." The Y-shape is found in medieval heraldry, and is called a "pall." An upside-down Y-shape is called a "pall inverted." Inverted charges are almost never found in medieval heraldry, and we recommend using a standard, Y-shaped pall instead of the inverted one. Also, the shamrock in the center is probably a modern invention. The shamrock was first associated in heraldry with Ireland when it was used by the English royalty in their role as rulers of Ireland. Irish people didn't generally use shamrocks in their heraldry, and we would recommend not using it at all.

So, a period modification of these arms would have a white field with a black Y-shape between three stags (The heraldic language for this is "Argent, a pall between three stags sable.") This is different enough from the original that you could use it, or you could modify it further. Your idea--modifying the arms of a relative--is a common medieval practice, called "cadency." However, the specific way that you modified these arms doesn't follow the medieval methods of cadency.

The main problem is that you interpreted the arms as being divided into three fields. A heraldic description of the arms is "A white field with an upside-down Y on it, surrounded by three stags." The black lines are a geometric design on one field, not a way of dividing the field into three parts.

Given this understanding of the arms, it doesn't make sense to change the color of one-third of the field or to substitute something for just one stag. There's only one field, and the stags are a set. Possible medieval ways to modify these arms would be to substitute three other charges for the three stags, to change the color of the field, or the color of the charges.

So you have many possibilites with your name and device. We won't make more specific suggestions until we hear from you; we'd be happy to help you find more information about anything you're interested in. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Rouland Carre, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Rouland Carre, and Arval D'Espas Nord contributed to this letter.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Selten, B. "The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names."

(2) Black, G. "The Surnames of Scotland."