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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for our suggestions for a 15th century Scottish Gaelic name using <William> as the given name and <Robert> or <Douglas> as your father's name. Here is what we have found.
In the 15th century, there were two languages spoken in large parts of Scots, a language related to contemporary English. Names in the two languages were very different and there was only very limited exchange of name elements between the two. Gaelic speakers used Gaelic names; Scots speakers used Scots names. Very few people did both.
<William> and <Robert> are Scots names. Both were adopted into Gaelic. The standard Gaelic form of <William> is <Uilliam> [1], and <Robert> appears in a 15th century source as <Rabert> [4].
<Douglas> was not a given name in our period; it was a Scots surname based on a place name. It was popular in England the very late 16th century and the 17th and 18th centuries to use surnames as given names. The given name <Douglas> was created in this manner [3]. If you choose a Scots persona, you could certainly use it as your surname; but it would not be appropriate for a Gaelic persona. There is a fairly similar Gaelic given name <Dubhghall> (modern <Dougal>) [2].
Most period Gaelic men were known by their own name plus a patronymic based on their fathers' names. Thus, Uilliam son of Rabert was called <Uilliam mac Rabeirt>. The extra 'i' in <Rabeirt> is added for grammatical reasons. The name is pronounced \William mahk RAH-beartch\. Similarly, if Uilliam's father were named Dubgall, he'd be <Uilliam mac Dubhghaill> \mahk DOO-wahl\ or <mahk Dhubhghaill> \mahk KOO-wahl\ . Any of these names fit your persona perfectly.
If you prefer to use the Scots form of <William>, then you might call yourself <William de Douglase> (using a spelling of <Douglas> recorded in 1429 [2]). But this would not be a Gaelic name.
I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in preparing this letter by Talan Gwynek and Effric nin Kenyeoch.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Donnchadh O'Corrain and Fidelma Maguire, Irish Names (Dublin: The
Lilliput Press, 1990).
[2] George F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland, (New York: The New York
Public Library, 1986).
[3] E.G. Withycombe, The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 3rd
ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
[4] A photograph of the "1467 MS", a Gaelic genealogical manuscript, which
is shelf-marked 72.1.1 in the Scottish National Library. Colm O'Boyle has kindly helped with our transcriptions from this manuscript.