Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 565

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 565

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/565

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 us to suggest a household name appropriate to early-period Ireland, and containing references to "night" or "moon". Here are our suggestions.

In the Society, a household is any unofficial association of people who have joined together for a common purpose. A household can re-create any kind of historical association, whether it be a nobleman with his family and retainers, or a theatrical troupe, or a laical confraternity. In order for a household name to be authentic, it has to be based on one of the possible historical models for the household itself.

In your period, the most appropriate historical models are a family or extended family, and a warband. In both cases, a collective name would almost always have been based on the given name of a leader or ancestor of the group. There are a few historical exceptions, like the "Fianna", the royal warband in early Ireland, but not enough to deduce a pattern of group naming that we can use to invent new names.

Clans were normally named after famous ancestors, probably not until at least a generation after the namesake himself had died. So, for example, suppose there were a man named Domhnall mac Cináedha (Domhnall, son of Cinead), descended from a famous ancestor named Conall Dubh (Conall the Black). His clan might be called "Clann Conaill". Another possibility is "Síl Conaill" (early period) or "Siol Conaill" (later period) ("í" represents an 'i' with an accent) [1]. If there were another clan named after another Conall, then a more specific name might have been used, "Clann Conaill Dubh".

Warbands, on the other hand, would have been named after their leader. Domhnall's warband might have been called "Fían Domnaill" early in period or "Fian Domhnaill" later in period.

Another possible basis for a household name is a place name. The people who lived in a place often identified themselves collectively by the place name. Domhnall's fort could have been called "Dun Domhnaill" or "Dun Dubh" (Domhnall's Fort or Dark Fort).

We do not know of any early-period Irish given names or place names which are based on the words "night" or "moon". There are several given names based on the Irish word for wolf, "fael". If you're interested in that possibility, let us know and we'll suggest some ways of using it.

I hope this letter has been helpful. Tangwystyl ferch Morgant Glasfryn, Talan Gwynek, Effric neyn Kenneoch, and Charles Stuart O'Connor contributed to this letter.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] O'Brien, "Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae," vol. 1 (Dublin: The Dublin

Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976).