Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 444

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 444

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/444

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 16th-century Scottish name "Alasdair Mackenzie of Kintail," and also a patronymic based on "Ian" or "Colin" as your father's name.

Gaelic-speaking people didn't normally use locations (such as "of Kintail.") During the 16th century, a name like "Mackenzie of Kintail" would indicate that you personally are the lord of Kintail. Since SCA personas are assumed to be minor nobles without titles, it would not be appropriate for you to add "of Kintail" to your name. Therefore, we researched the name "Alasdair Mackenzie."

In period, Gaelic-spealing people didn't normally indicate their clan affiliation through their byname. The byname "Mackenzie" wasn't used by Gaels to indicate that they were members Clan Mackenzie. It was a patronymic meaning "son of Cainneach," and indicated that your father's given name was "Cainneach."

Since "Mackenzie" is a patronymic, you wouldn't use it with a second patronymic based on "Ian" or "Colin." However, we did research patronymics based on those names.

"Alasdair Mackenzie" is a Gaelic name, but most records from the 16th-century are in Scots (a language related to English, spoken in the Lowlands). Thus we need to find three versions of it--a Gaelic spelling, a Scots spelling, and the spoken pronunciation (which would be basically the same in Scots or Gaelic). There are variations in each of these versions, which we've talked about below.

Most 16th-century Scottish records are in Scots, so we don't have much evidence about the Gaelic spelling of "Alasdair." There is a 15th century Gaelic document where the name appears as "Alx", an abbreviation for "Alexander." (1) In medieval Irish Gaelic documents, the name has appeared as "Alusdar" and "Alastar" (unfortunately we don't have any dates for these Irish Gaelic spellings). We think that "Alastar" would be the most likely 16th-century Scottish Gaelic form.

"Mackenzie" is a Scots spelling of the Gaelic byname "mac Cainnich," which means "son of Cainneach." Again, we don't have any 16th century examples from Scottish Gaelic documents, but in a 15th century Scottish Gaelic document it appears as "mac Cainnigh." You could use either "Mac Cainnigh" or "Mac Cainnich."

So, either "Alastar mac Cainnigh" or "Alastar mac Cainnich" would be appropriate Gaelic spellings of your name.

Since almost all Scottish records from the 16th century were written in Scots, your persona's name would have normally been written in Scots. We have many 16th-century Scots-language documents with this name. The most common spelling found is actually "Alexander", but we also found (2)

we also found the following spellings in bynames:

We did not find any Scots examples that used a "d." From these examples, we can see that the most likely Scots spelling for your given name is "Alester" or "Allester."

The "z" in "Mackenzie" is a modern replacement. In period, it was spelled with the letter "yogh," which looks something like a subscripted "3." "n3" is pronounced like the "ni" in "onion."

We found many spellings from your period, including (2)

We didn't find any examples with the exact spelling "Macken3ie", but based on those we did find it would be a reasonable Scots spelling in the 16th century.

Based on this, the Scots spelling of your name could be "Alexander Macken3ie", "Allester Makkan3e", "Alester McKannych", or any number of other combinations. (It was not unusual for the same person to have their name spelled several different ways in different documents, or even in the same document.)

All the examples we have indicate that your given name would be pronounced "Alester," as it appears. Your byname could be pronounced "mac KAHN-yee" or "mac KAHN-yeekh" (where "kh" is the "throat-clearing" noise in "loch"). If you use the "mac KAHN-yeekh" pronunciation, you should also use spellings which include "ch" since "ch" is used to represent this sound in both Scots and Gaelic.

To summarize, we would suggest the following forms:

Gaelic: "Alastar mac Cainnigh" or "Alastar mac Cainnich." Scots: A wide variety of forms are possible. Spoken: "Alester mac Kahnyee" or "Alester mac Kahnyeekh."

This means "Alastar, whose father was named Cainneach" and does not mean that you are a member of Clan Mackenzie.

You also asked about the patronymics you would have if your father was named "Ian" or "Colin." Because "mac Cainnich" is also a patronymic, one based on "Ian" or "Colin" would replace it.

"Ian" is a modern Anglicized spelling of the period Gaelic name "Eoin", which is itself the Scottish Gaelic form of the name "John". If your father's name was "Eoin", your patronymic byname would be, in Gaelic, "mac Eoin". This would be pronounced, roughly, "mack OAN", where "OAN" is like the sound in English "moan". A regional variation would appear to be pronounced, roughly, "mack AIN", where "AIN" is like the sound in English "main". As with "mac Cainnigh", we don't have any 16th century examples from Scottish Gaelic documents, but in a 15th century Scottish Gaelic document it appears as "mac Eoin". In Scots language documents, it appeared in a number of different Scots spellings:

In the context of Scottish Gaelic culture, "Colin" is a modern Anglicized spelling of the period Gaelic name "Cailin". If your father's name was "Cailin", your patronymic byname would be, in Gaelic, "mac Cailin". This would be pronounced, roughly, "mack CAHL-in". As with "mac Cainnigh" and "mac Eoin", we don't have any 16th century examples from Scottish Gaelic documents, but in a 15th century Scottish Gaelic document it appears as "mac Cailin". In Scots language documents, it appeared in a number of different Scots spellings:

So, if your father's name was "Eoin", we recommend that you use the Gaelic language name "Alastar mac Eoin", which would appear in written documents (which were written in Scots) as "Alexander McAan", "Allester Makkaane", "Alester M'Cayne", or any number of other combinations. Or, if your father's name was "Cailin", we recommend that you use the Gaelic language name "Alastar mac Cailin", which would appear in written documents (which were written in Scots) as "Alexander MacCalin", "Allester MacCallin", "Alester McKallone", or a number of other combinations.

Regarding your arms: a lion rampant is a very common charge in heraldry. We investigated some simple designs using lions rampant, and found that the following ones do not conflict with any registered arms. All these designs have three lions rampant, two at the top and one at the bottom of the shield.

Argent, three lions rampant azure (blue on white) Argent, three lions rampant vert (green on white) Or, three lions rampant vert (green on yellow) Or, three lions rampant purpure (purple on yellow).

Green was used more rarely than other colors in heraldry from your period, and purple was even more rare. The purple used in heraldry was a much duller color than the royal purple--in modern terms, it's more like mauve.

Normally we would recommend against using green or purple in a coat of arms, but because your design is so simple it would be reasonable to use green or a heraldic purple in your arms.

Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Talan Gwynek, Daniel de Lincoln, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Herveus d'Ormonde, Alison MacDermot, Rouland Carre, and Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn 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

(1) A photograph of the "1467 MS", a Gaelic genealogical manuscript, which is shelf-marked 72.1.1 in the Scottish National Library.

(2) Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland_ (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1993), s.nn. "Macalaster", "Macinnes", "Macbrabner", "Macian", "Mackean", "Mac Cailein", "Maccallien", and "Mackenzie".

(3) O/ Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_, 2nd ed. (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. "Alusdar" and "Cainnech".