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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for help constructing an Irish name using <Uilliam> as your given names and <Guyver> as your father's name. Here's our advice.
Before I discuss your name, I'd like to explain what the Academy can offer you. The Academy provides assistance to Society participants in choosing and using names and arms that fit the period cultures that they want to re-create. If you want a historically appropriate name, we will be happy to help you. However, we feel obliged to point out that the persona history you recounted in your letter is not historically plausible, particularly the idea of having an Irish name that includes an element from some foreign language. Mixed language names were exceedingly rare in our period. Since you seem to be most interested in Irish culture, we will focus on Irish names.
<Uilliam> is an Irish adaptation of the Anglo-Norman name <Willelm>, the precursor of the modern English <William>. The Irish name is recorded in this spelling in the late 16th century [1]. Many medieval records were written in Latin with the names latinized regardless of their original language. Some 14th century Irish records written in Latin include the latinized <Willelmus> in combination with Gaelic name elements, implying that Gaelic forms of the name had developed by this time [2]. The Normans arrived in Ireland in the 13th century, so that's the earliest date when any Norman name might have been found in Ireland; but it probably took some time for the name to penetrate into Gaelic culture, so it is safest to use <Uilliam> only from the 14th century onward.
Since your first choice for a given name is appropriate to your persona, we will not offer alternatives. We're also going to assume that you want to set your persona in the 14th century or later, since that's when <Uilliam> existed. If you would like information about others names or periods, please write us again; we'll be happy to help.
In Gaelic, a man was often known as his father's son, using a patronymic common for a man to be known as a descendent of an important ancestor, <Uilliam ó Ruairc> "William, descendent of Ruarc". By the 16th century, this name also carried the implication "William of clan O/ Ruairc". Regardless of how else he might be described, any late-period Irishman would have used these kinds of bynames in formal occasions. In the 16th century, he probably would have used both, naming both his father and the famous ancestor for whom his clan was named: <Uilliam mac Cormaic ó
Ruairc>. (The slash in "ó" represents an accent on the vowel.) In less
formal circumstances, a man could be known by a descriptive byname,
<Uilliam Ruadh> "William the Red". If you want an Irish persona, then your
name should follow one of these patterns.
If you were travelling abroad, you would probably have adapted your name to the local language either by translation or transliteration. For example, in late-period England the names mentioned in the previous paragraph could have been rendered as <William M'Cormick>, <William O'Rowarke>, <William Roe> and <William Red> [6].
<Guyver> is a modern surname derived from the Gaelic patronymic <mag I/omhair> "son of Iomhar". The given name <I/omhar> is pronounced "EE-vahr"; the extra 'i' in the patronym is added for grammatical reasons. <Mag Iómhair> is recorded in late-period English records as <M'Givor> and also produced the modern surnames <MacGeevor>, <MacGeever>, and <MacGaver> [3, 4]. Notice how the 'g' was transferred from the prefix <mag> to the patronym <I/omhair>; some time after our period, the name was further mis-interpretted to mean "son of Givor" or "Guyver". <Guyver> itself was never a given name.
<Uilliam mag I/omhair> or <Uilliam mac I/omhair> would be an excellent name for a 14th to 16th century Irishman born into Irish culture, and this form of the name would be appropriate when speaking or writing in Irish Gaelic. In an English context, your name would have been anglicized, perhaps to <William M'Givor>. Neither of these names would be appropriate for someone who was not originally Irish: If you were born in another country, then you would have been named according to the customs of that country.
Since you also mentioned your modern surname <Hartnett>, here's some quick information on that name. The modern Irish surname <Hartnett> or <O
Hartnett> is an anglicized form of the Gaelic <O/ hAirtnéada> "male
descendent of Airtnéad" [5]. <Uilliam O/ hAirtnéada> would also be a
fine name for your Irish persona.
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 Tangwystyl ferch Morgant Glasfryn, Effrick nyn Kenneoch, AElfwyn aet Gurwym, and Charles O'Connor.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Walsh, Paul, ed., _Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill -- Life of Hugh
Roe O'Donnell_ (Irish Texts Society, 1948).
[2] Newport B. White, ed., _The Red Book of Ormonde (From the
Fourteenth-Century Original preserved at Kilkenny Castle, with missing portions supplied from the Fifteenth-Century Transcript in the Bodleian Library)_ (Dublin: The Stationery Office, 1932).
[3] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, Irish Names (Dublin: The
Lilliput Press, 1990).
[4] Woulfe, Patrick, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames
(Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation).
[5] MacLysaght, Edward, The Surnames of Ireland (Dublin: Irish Academic
Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3).
[6] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995).