Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 398

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 398

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/398

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 found on your proposed Scots Gaelic name "Shon MacShae."

We didn't find either of these names, but we found many names which are similar. There are three possiblities--you could use an Irish name, a Scottish Gaelic name, or a Scots name.

"Seán" (with an accented a) is the Irish form of "John," which was introduced during the Norman invasion of Ireland. We didn't find "mac Shea," but "O/ Shea" is a common Irish name. (1) The Irish spelling of this name in period was "O/ Seaghdha." Thus, "Seán O/ Seaghdha," which is pronounced, "Shawn O Shea," would be an excellent Irish name.

The Scots Gaelic form of "John" in late period was "Eoin," pronounced "oan." We didn't find any examples of "O/ Seaghdha" in Scotland, so if you want to use "Eoin" we would recommend a different byname as well.

You may also want to use "Jhon," which is a common Scots spelling of "John." If you used a Scots name, you would have to find a byname which followed Scots naming patterns. For more information on Scots naming, look at the Web page

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

Talan Gwynek, Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Zenobia Naphtali, and Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn contributed to this letter.

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

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) O'Corrain & Maguire, "Irish Names."

(2) Talan Gwynek, commentary.