Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 536

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/536

Later research turned up additional information relevant to this report. See the end of the letter for details.

Greetings,

Here's the information we can give you on your proposed Manx name, "Bryanna Branwyn Cannell."

Unfortuately, neither "Bryanna" nor "Branwyn" are medieval names in any language.

We have an article on "Branwen" at

http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/problem_names/branwen.html

"Brianna" is a modern name which was meant to be a feminine form of "Brian." However, in Gaelic (including Manx Gaelic), female names weren't formed by adding "-a" to male names. Further, no one in the SCA has ever found an example of a person named "Brianna" or anything similar in the Middle Ages.

More information on "Brianna" can be found at

http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/problemnames/brianna.html

In the 12th century, the Isle of Man was ruled by the Norse. All of the names from that period are either Norse or Gaelic (the Manx, Irish, and Scottish dialects of Gaelic hadn't separated at that time). We recommend that you look at Irish name lists for ideas.

Different authors list different origins for "Cannell," but the most likely one is that it's an Anglicized form of the Irish "mac Dhomnaill," meaning "son of Domnall." Since you're a woman, you would use "ingen Domnaill," meaning "daughter of Domnall." This is a literal term--it means that your father's name was Domnall.

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

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in n, like inghean, the letter D does not lenite.