Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 591

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 591

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/591

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 "Tiarnan MacPhelean O'Neill," which you'd like to use as a late 14th-century Scottish lowland name.

Your letter doesn't make it quite clear where you want to set your persona. You mentioned Irish, Scots, the Lowland, and Scots/Irish. All these terms mean different things, so we'd like to start by sorting them out.

"Irish" refers to Ireland. In the 14th century, one language spoken in Ireland was very similar to the Gaelic spoken in some parts of Scotland. Names used in Gaelic Scotland were almost identical to those used in Gaelic Ireland. But Gaelic was not the only language spoken in Scotland or in Ireland. "Scots" was a separate language, closely related to English and used mostly in the Lowlands of Scotland. Names in Scots are quite similar to names in contemporary English.

"Scots-Irish" is an American term which refers to immigrants descended from the Scots who settled in northern Ireland. It wasn't used until the 19th century, and is well past our period.

With very minor modifications, your name would be reasonable Anglicized form for a 16th-century Irishman from Ulster (northern Ireland). The O'Neill clan was based in that area.

However, we didn't do a great deal of research into 16th-century Ireland because we understood that your main interest is to have a persona who is the son of a Scottish Lowland knight. Thus, we worked on a name which would be appropriate for a 14th-century nobleman who lives in the lowlands.

In the 14th century, there were two major languages in mainland Scotland--Scots, which is closely related to English and Gaelic, which was spoken in both Ireland and Scotland at this time. Generally, Scots was spoken in the lowlands and Gaelic was spoken in the highlands during your period, although there were exceptions. "Tiarnan MacPhelean O'Neill" is a Gaelic name. A classic "lowlander" would have a Scots name, not a Gaelic one.

It's possible for your persona to be a Gaelic-speaker who lives in the lowlands, and to have ancestors who spoke both Gaelic and Scots. However, if you had this kind of persona story than your persona wouldn't quite be a "lowlander" as we think of them today.

If you want a Scots-speaking persona, then you'll have to come up with a totally new name. A Web page with a list of 14th-century Scots names is at

http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/scottish14.html

If you are happy with a Gaelic-speaking persona who lives in the lowlands, then your name only needs minor changes.

We didn't find any names that had both "mac" and "o" in them. Although such a name theoretically possible, we wouldn't recommend it. Since you specifically said that you were willing to drop the "O'Neill," that shouldn't be a problem.

"Tiarnan MacPhelan" is a very reasonable name for your period--the only question is figuring out accurate ways to spell it. In your period, most records were kept by people who spoke Scots. Therefore, your name would have a Gaelic spelling and a Scots spelling, which would both be used depending on where your persona's name was being written.

The most common Scots spelling of your first name in the 14th century is "Tiernan." We found several Scots spellings of your father's name from period, including "Folan" and "Foulin." A Scots spelling like "Tiernan mcFolan" would be accurate for the 14th century.

The most common Gaelic spelling of your first name is "Tigernán" (where the "á" indicates an accented "a"). The most common Gaelic spelling of your byname is "mac Faoláin."

Thus, for the 14th century your name would be spelled "Tiernan mcFolan" in Scots and "Tigernán mac Faoláin" in Gaelic. Although these names look very different, they're pronounced the same way.

Regarding your arms, we were a bit unclear on what exactly you wanted. However, we can say that it's rare for Scottish arms from your period to include four colors. We recommend removing either the blue or red and using

"Azure, a chevron checky argent and sable" (Blue background, a black-and-white checked chevron) or

"Gules, a chevron checky argent and sable" (Red background, same chevron).

Either of these designs would be appropriate for 14th-century Scotland.

We didn't mention crescents, and here's why. In period (and in the SCA), the arms of the "kingdom" are actually the personal arms of the king. In the SCA this distinction gets blurry because our kings rule for a short time, but in the Middle Ages the arms of the kingdom were the personal property of the king. Thus, if someone used a gold fleurde -lys in their arms, it was more likely to mean, "I'm related to the King of France" than "I'm from France."

So generally, we recommend against using crescents as a way to say, "I'm from Caid." If you've sworn fealty to the King of Caid then it might be appropriate to use crescents in your arms, but even this isn't a common medieval practice. On the other hand, crescents (with the horns pointing up) are a common medieval charge, and if you added three crescents to either of the designs we suggested above you'd still have reasonable arms for your period.

We haven't checked these designs for conflict.

Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, Zenobia Naphtali, Arval Benicoeur, AElfwynn aet Gywrum, Margaret macDuibhsidhe, Charles O'Connor, 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