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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel.
You asked for information if the names <Manus MacLachlainn> and <Magnus mac Lachlainn> are reasonable for the 11th century, and about armory with a green field, a white griffin erect, forepaws raised, a tressure, and a gold thistle. Here's what we found.
The first example of the name Magnus in Scandanavia was Magnus I, King of Norway and Denmark,who died in 1047. While we have early 12th century examples of its use in Ireland and England, we are not sure when it first came to be used in Scotland. However, it seems reasonable to believe that it was used there by the end of the 11th century.
<Manus mac Lachlainn> is a fine later Scottish Gaelic name, but the form <Manus> is unlikely in the 11th century. In Ireland, one source gives the early form as <Magnus> [1], and another mentions a <Maghnus ri Lochlainni> or <Magnus, king of Norway>.[2]
Concerning the patronymic <MacLachlainn>, we found the following. In addition to the forms given in the last paragraph, a third source mentions a <Lochlainn Mac Lochlainn> in Ireland in 1060. The same source shows several non-Gaelic examples of Lochlainn and MacLachlainn in use in Scotland from the 12th century onwards; it is likely that a Scottish Gaelic form of the name was used in the 11th century (and that the non-Gaelic written forms represented Scottish Gaelic spoken forms), but we have no written examples in Scottish Gaelic.[3]
We would recommend these forms as appropriate for the 11th century: <Maghnus mac Lochlainn> and <Magnus mac Lochlainn>. <Magnus mac
Lochlainni>, and <Maghnus mac Lochlainni> may also be reasonable forms
for the 11th century. Note that these are all reasonable Irish forms
for that period, and that, while we have not found them recorded in
Scotland, we believe they are would have been used there as well.
"Heraldry" in the Middle Ages incorporates certain characteristics, including 1) a limited set of colors, animal postures, and geometric shapes; 2) designs were generally represented on a shield shape; 3) rules for personal ownership, use, and inheritance of arms. This system didn't develop until mid-12th century, so your persona wouldn't have used "heraldry" in the technical sense.
Of course, people painted their shields long before the rules of heraldry were developed, and many of these designs bear a close resemblance to what came to be known as heraldry. Your design can be modified to be a reasonable recreation of something an 11th-century Gael might have painted on his shield. If you want, you could submit that design to the SCA College of Arms for registration, although you don't have to.
We were unsure what you meant by a "plain tressure." Because of this, we are assuming that you mean a single band surrounding the wyvern. This band is usually called an "orle."
The arms you proposed would probably be blazoned "Vert, a wyvern erect argent and in base a thistle Or within an orle argent." We encourage you to drop the thistle; thistles are not found in arms in Scotland until the 16th century, and even then, they were rare. What's left, "Vert, a wyvern erect within an orle argent," would be an unusual design either a Scottish totem or Scottish arms, but not impossible; wyverns are not typically found in Scottish heraldic or totemic art. If you choose to use this, we would advise you to draw the wyvern with bird wings instead of bat wings. Bat winged dragons and wyverns are a much later artistic convention in heraldry and in other art forms.
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. Talan Gwynek, Arval d'Espas Nord, Rouland Carre, Alan Fairfax, Daniel de Lincoln, Herveus, and Zenobia Naphtali aided in researching and writing this letter.
In Service
Margaret Makafee
[1] O'Corrain, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, "Gaelic Personal Names", The Academy Press, Dublin, 1981.
[2] 'The Annals of Ulster for 1102' in "Dictionary of the Irish Language." Compact edition. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1990.
[3] Black, George F. "The Surnames of Scotland", New York Public Library, 1946