Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 554

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 554

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/554

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

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked for help forming a 16th century Scottish Gaelic male name and patronymic byname. You said you would like to use either <Colyne> or <Cormac> for your given name, and either <Domnal> or <Donnachac> for your father's given name. Here's what we've found.

<Colyne> is an Anglicized spelling of the Gaelic name <Cailin>. We have very few period Scottish Gaelic documents to work from, but we did find <Cailin> in a Gaelic document from 1467. The spelling would probably have been the same in the 16th century. This name is pronounced roughly \KAHL-in\ [1].

We also found an example of the Gaelic name <Cormac> in the 1467 MS. This name is pronounced roughly \KOHR-mahk\ [1].

Since both of the given names you asked about for yourself are suitable for your period and place, we aren't suggesting any others.

<Domnal> is a misspelling of the Gaelic name <Domnall>. We found an example of <Domnall> in the 1467 MS [1]. The more standard late period Gaelic spelling of this name (with the same pronunciation) was <Domhnall>. As explained in "Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames" [4], men formed patronymic bynames by using the Gaelic word for "son" (<mac> in the 16th century) with the genitive case of their father's name. (The genitive case is the form of a name which expresses possession, like <Peter's> as opposed to <Peter>.) So, if you choose to use <Domhnall> as your father's given name, your patronymic byname would be <mac Domhnaill>. This phrase is pronounced roughly \mahk DON-ahl\ (note that the 'mh' in <Domhnaill> is not pronounced) and means "son of Domhnall".

In at least some parts of Scotland, we also find the form <mac Dhomhnaill> [2], which is pronounced roughly \mahk KHOHN-ahl\ (where \KH\ represents the hard, rasping 'ch' sound the German <Bach> or Scottish <loch>). This name still means "son of Domhnall"; the replacement of 'D' by 'Dh' is another grammatical change called lenition. Lenition is a softening of the initial sound of a word, often represented by adding an 'h' after the first letter. In this case, the \D\ sound become \KH\.

<Donnachac> is a Gaelic name for which we only have one example, from the 12th century [3]. We have no evidence that it was in use in the 16th century, so we recommend that you avoid it.

Since one of the given names you asked about for your father is suitable for your period and place, we aren't suggesting any others.

Therefore, depending on whether you choose to use <Cailin> or <Cormac> for yourself, the 16th century Scottish Gaelic form and pronunciation of your name and patronymic byname could be:

<Cailin mac Domhnaill> \KAHL-in mahk DON-ahl\ meaning "Cailin son of Domhnall"

or

<Cormac mac Domhnaill> \KOHR-mahk mahk DON-ahl\, meaning "Cormac son of Domhnall"

As we described above, you could also use <mac Dhomhnaill> \mahk KOHN-ahl\ as your patronymic.

In the 16th century, most documents in Scotland were written in Scots (a language closely related to English), not Gaelic. Because medieval Scottish scribes transformed names to suit the language being used, when your name was written in these Scots documents, it would have been spelled in Scots, not Gaelic. Here are some examples of Scots spellings of "Cailin" from the years indicated [2]:

Colyn 1232
Colin 1284, 1261
Callane (early 16th century)
Collen 1646

We did not find any examples of <Colyne>. Although we only found 13th century examples of <Colyn> and <Colin>, we think these spellings might have been used in the 16th century as well.

We didn't find any late period examples of Scots spellings of <Cormac> used as a given name, but we did find the spelling <Cormok> used in the surname <Cormokeson> in 1471 and in <McCormok> 1478 [2].

Here are some examples of Scots spellings of <mac Domhnaill> from the years indicated [2]:

MakDonald 1571
McDonyll 1521

Here are some examples of Scots spellings of <mac Dhomhnaill> from the years indicated [2]:

Makconehill 1564
Maconhale 1588
McConile 1571
M'Conill 1580
McConnaill 1581
McConnil 1564
McConnill 1597
M'Connyll 1545
MacKonald 1586
M'Konnell 1576
Makconell 1521

So, for example, your name might be written in Scots-language documents as <Colyn McDonyll>, <Callane McConnaill>, <Colin MakDonald>, as so on. A scribe might actually spell your name several different ways, even within the same document.

We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. We were assisted in researching and writing this letter by Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn.

For the Academy,

Effric neyn Kenyeoch Vc Harrald and Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] Skene, William F., "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from

Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 1. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, with a Translation,", pp 50-62, and "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 2. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, continued," pp. 357-60, _Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis consisting of Original Papers and Documents Relating to the History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, ed. The Iona Club (Edinburgh: Thomas G. Stevenson, 1847).

[2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and

History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986).

[3] Jackson, Kenneth. The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1972).

[4] Krossa, Sharon L., "Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames" (WWW: Private

published, 1997).
http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/quick_gaelic_bynames.html