|
Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!
You asked whether <Caitriona inghean Guaire> would be an acceptable name.
The name <Guaire> was relatively common in the early Irish period, and it appears once in a Scottish genealogical manuscript from 1467. [2, 3] This Guaire probably lived in the early 14th century, but there is evidence that the name <Guaire> was used in Scotland right to the end of the SCA period: Black cites <Gorre McDonill VcGorre> from 1582. [1] This appears to be a Scots spelling of Gaelic <Guaire mac Domhnaill mhic Guaire>, though there is a possibility that <Gorre> represents a different Gaelic name. (Scots is a language closely related to English in which most late-period Scottish records were kept.)
After <inghean> the name undergoes a small grammatical adjustment called 'lenition', becoming <Ghuaire>. Assuming that <Guaire> was in fact then in use, <Caitriona inghean Ghuaire> would be a fine Scottish Gaelic name for the 15th and 16th centuries. It would have been pronounced roughly \kahtch-REE-na NEE-yen WOR-eh\ in Scotland.
We hope that this has been helpful and that we can continue to assist you.
For the Academy,
Talan Gwynek
[1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_ (New York: The New York Public Library, 1989).
[2] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh & Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). (The slash denotes an acute accent over the preceding vowel.)
[3] The '1467 MS', a Gaelic genealogical manuscript that is shelf-marked 72.1.1 in the Scottish National Library.