Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 674

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 674

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/674

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked for information about <Kilian> and <Aingeal> as period Irish names. Here is what we have found.

<Aingeal> is a modern Irish adaptation of <Angela> [1]. We find no evidence that it was used in Ireland in period. <Angela> is first noted in England in the 17th century and did not become popular there until the 19th century [1]. It is therefore unlikely that it penetrated to Ireland in our period.

You may want to consider the similar period name <Aine>, pronounced \AH-nyeh\ [3]. That name has no connection to the word "angel" (nor to the biblical name <Anne>, with which it is often confused), but it is similar in sound to <Aingeal>.

<Kilian> is an anglicized form of the Irish masculine names <Cilléne> and <Cillíne>, which was used by several early saints. (The slash represents an sharp accent on the preceding vowel.) These names are correctly pronounced \KILL-yeen\ [3]. The anglicized form might have been used in English records late in our period.

The word <ní> is a post-period contraction of a phrase meaning "daughter of the male descendent". Many Irish men in our period were known as "descendent of" a famous ancestor. For example, <Colm O/ Connáin> means "Colm, descendent of Connan". Colm's daughter Caoilfhionn could have been called <Caoilfhionn inghean uí Chonnaín> "Caoilfhionn, daughter of the descendent of Connan". The phrase <inghean uí> was pronounced "IN-yen EE" in early Irish, but the pronunciation was contracted to \NEE\ in 16th century Irish. After our period, the spelling eventually mimicked the pronunciation, <ní>. The same woman might also have been called <Caoilfhionn inghean Cholm> "Caoilfhionn, daughter of Colm". On its own, <inghean> is pronounced <IN-yen> in Irish. In case the name appeals to you, <Caoilfhionn> is pronounced \KEE-lin\ [3].

The correct late-period Gaelic for "Aine, daughter of Kilian" is <Aine inghean Chillín> or <Aine inghean Chilleáin>, pronounced roughly \AH-nyeh IN-yen KHILL-een\. Note that the initial 'C' in <Cillíne> becomes 'Ch' in the patronymic compound and is pronounced differently, like the hard, rasping 'ch' sound in the German "ach" or "Bach". This grammatical change, called lenition, represents a softening of the consonant after a feminine noun. In a late-period English record, the same name might have appeared as <Anya nyn Kilian>, while <Anya inghean ui Chilleáin> might have been recorded as <Anya ny Kilian> [4].

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 and Effric nin Kenyeoch.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] Woulfe, Patrick, Irish Names for Children (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan,

1974).

[2] Withycombe, E.G., The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 3rd

ed. (Oxford University Press).

[3] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, Irish Names (Dublin: The

Lilliput Press, 1990).

[4] Ewen, C. L'Estrange, A History of Surnames of the British Isles

(London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1931).