Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 698

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 698

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/698

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 S. Gabriel!

You asked how to form an authentic 12th or 13th century Irish name for someone whose own name was <Ronan> and whose father's name was <Craeg>.

<Rónán> was quite a popular man's name in early Ireland, and we know that it was used at least into the 11th century, when a <Rónán mac Cuirc> is mentioned in the Annals of Inisfallen. [2, 5] (The slash stands for an acute accent over the preceding vowel.) While we don't have later citation, it seems likely that the name was still in use in your period. It can also be written without the accents and is pronounced \RO-nahn\.

We couldn't find any period given name similar to <Craeg>, so we weren't able to form the patronymic that you requested. (Your own modern given name of <Craig> is derived from a Scottish surname that only became a given name in the 20th century. [1]) We therefore looked for other types of Irish bynames with a similar look or sound.

We found an Irish surname whose modern English form is <Creagh>, but the actual Irish name is <Craobhach>, an adjective formed from the word <craobh> 'branch'. According to tradition, the main family of this name adopted it to commemorate a tradition that one of their ancestors carried a green branch into a battle fought at Limerick against the Danes. However, there are also several places in Ireland named <Craobh>, presumably after some notable tree with particularly dense branches, and <Craobhach> can also mean 'of Craobh, Craobh-ish' in reference to someone from one of these places. [6]

At any rate, the name is pronounced roughly \KRAY-vahkh\, a pronunciation reflected by the late-period Anglicized spelling <Creavagh>. [6] This name appears to date from your period, so <Rónán Craobhach> should be a reasonable 13th century name.

We also found an Irish surname <de Carraig> 'of Carrick', which is a bit closer in both sound and appearance. There was an Anglo-Norman family in Ireland who took this name from Carrick in Ayrshire, Scotland, and the surname was not uncommon in Ireland in the 13th century. [3, 6] Assuming that <Rónán> was still in use at that time, <Rónán de Carraig> (pronounced roughly \ROE-nahn djeh CAR-rick\) would fit your period.

At that time many records were written in Latin. In such a record <Rónán> would probably have appeared as <Ronanus>. [6] We don't know how <Craobhach> would have been Latinized, but Carrick in Scotland occurs as <Carricta> in some Latin records. [4] Extrapolating from this yields <Ronanus de Carricta> as a possible documentary Latin form of <Rónán de Carraig>.

Arval Benicoeur also contributed to this letter. We hope that the information is of use and that you will write us if you have any further questions.

For the Academy,

Talan Gwynek


[1] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling. The New American Dictionary of First Names (Signet Books, 1983).

[2] Mac Airt, Seán, ed. The Annals of Inisfallen (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988).

[3] MacLysaght, Edward. The Surnames of Ireland (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3).

[4] Martin, Charles Trice. The Record Interpreter: A Collection of Abbreviations, Latin Words and Names Used in English Historical Manuscripts and Records. 2nd ed. (London: Stevens and Sons, 1949).

[5] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire. Irish Names (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990).

[6] Woulfe, Patrick. Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1967 [1923]).