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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for our opinion of <Arianrhod> as a pre-millennial Irish name, of a byname meaning "of the dark horse", and of your ideas for your arms. Here is what we have found.
<Arianrhod> is the name of a Welsh legendary character. According to all the available research, <Arianrhod> was used in period only in literature and not by normal people [1]. Even if it were used, it would be a Welsh name, not an Irish name.
Although <Arianrhod> is not specifically a divine name, you asked about the general use of divine names. A few divine names have been documented in use in Welsh, mostly in late period, but our experience is that divine names were rarely used in Welsh or Irish medieval naming. As you noted, some Welsh and Irish divine names have been registered in the past; but registration is not a guarantee of historical documentation. The College of Arms has never required all names to be documented from period usage, and until the 1980s did not require name documentation at all. So past registration cannot be taken as a guide to historical usage or to current College rules.
There are three sources for names which begin <Arian->. One is Greek, and probably did not arise until the renaissance. One is Welsh and one is Latin.
The Greek root name is <Ariadne>, the mythological character. That name was adopted into Italian as <Ariana> and French as <Arianne> [2]. These names could not have been used in Ireland or Wales in your period.
The Welsh root is the element <Arian->, ultimately derived from a Welsh word meaning "silver". Two names using that element are <Ariannell> and <Arianwen>. These names were used in early medieval Wales [3].
The Latin sources are the nomen (family name) <Arianius> and several cognomina (nicknames) based on <Arrian->. The specific names that we can document are: <Ariania>, <Arriana>, <Arrianilla>, <Arrionilla> [4]. The Romans had strong influence on Wales before 400 AD, but not in Ireland; so if you place your persona is Wales, any of these names would be appropriate. But if your persona is Irish, they would not be appropriate.
The element <Arian-> does not exist in Irish names. There is a cognate element <Argat->, which produced the names <Argatbran>, <Argarmár> and <Argetán>, but these are all masculine names [5, 6]. We found no evidence of feminine names based on <Argat->.
If you are interested in a late classical or early medieval name that sounds like <Arian>, then your best bet would be to move your persona to Wales or Britain and choose a Romano-British name like <Ariania>. If you want your persona to be Irish, then I'm afraid we can't suggest anything with that sound; you can find some guidance on early Irish names in the article "Feminine Names From The Index To O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'", on the web at:
http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html
You asked about the possibility of a byname meaning "of the dark horse". This sort of name would be unlikely in many languages, including Welsh, but we believe that it is quite plausible for medieval Irish. The Middle Irish word <echbán> means "having white horses", and the similarly constructed <echlúath> "having swift horses" was used as a personal byname. There is no evidence of a word meaning "having dark horses", but the pattern could be extended to create <echdubh> [6]. This spelling would have been used in the Middle Ages; if you want to set your persona in the 1st century (as you hinted in your letter), then you might prefer to use the spelling "eqoduba", which we believe to how the same word might have been represented at that early date [7].
Finally, you asked our opinion of your design, which could be blazoned "Sable, a mullet of seven points Or charged with a horse's head sable." Before I discuss that specific design, I'd like to point out that heraldry was not invented until the late 12th century: Your persona would not have used arms. That doesn't mean that you can't use arms, but you may want to think about the problem of fitting them into your historical re-creations. You may want to read our short article on this subject, which you can find on the web at:
http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq/nonheraldic.html
The motif of a charge on a star is quite common in Society armory, modern military insignia, and certain other areas of modern design, but is almost unknown in medieval heraldry. Since the seven-pointed star is also quite rare in medieval arms, we strongly recommend that you drop it. Placing the horse's head on the star forces the head to be extremely small; if you want the head to be the primary element, you should place it directly on the field so that it can be larger.
In addition, your design cannot be registered: It is too similar to the existing Society arms of Grainne ni Dyerree-in-Dowan "Sable, on a mullet of seven points Or, voided vert, a garb Or."
If you decide to consider other designs for arms, we'd be happy to help you. Write us with any questions.
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 researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, Charles Stuart o Connor, Tangwystyl ferch Morgant Glasfryn and Margeret Macafee.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Laurel Letter of Acceptances and Returns, August 1987, Returns,
Arianrhod Ravengarre.
[2] Withycombe, E.G., The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 3rd
ed. (Oxford University Press).
[3] Gruffudd, Heini. Enwau i'r Cymry/Welsh Personal Names (Talybont: Y
Lolfa, 1984).
[4] Solin, Heikki & Olli Salomies, _Repertorium Nominum Gentilium et
Cognominum Latinorum_ (Hildesheim: Olms-Weidmann, 1988).
[5] O'Brien, M. A., ed., Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae (Dublin: The Dublin
Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976).
[6] Royal Irish Academy, Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on
Old and Middle Irish materials (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983).
[7] Commentary from Mistress Tangwystyl ferch Morgant Glasfryn.