Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 717

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 717

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/717

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

You asked for documentation of the name <Alesone MacGillivray> for a Scottish context of no particular date.

The purpose of the Academy is primarily to offer assistance to people who want to choose and use names and arms appropriate to the period cultures that they are re-creating. This includes providing relevant documentation, but the historical plausibility of the name comes first. The name that you're interested in is a bit problematical; it's conceivable that with a little tinkering it might be a reasonable late-period Scottish name, but the limited evidence that we have suggests otherwise.

In the later part of the SCA period there were two main languages spoken in Scotland: Gaelic, which was spoken in the Highlands, and Scots, a language closely related to English, which was spoken in the Lowlands. Names were formed quite differently in the two languages, and as a result names that combine elements from both languages are rare. For the most part they are of just two types: Gaelic names in which the given name is a Gaelicized borrowing of a non-Gaelic name, and Scots names in which an originally Gaelic patronymic has been borrowed into Scots as a hereditary surname.

In your case the given name is of French origin, while <MacGillivray> is a modern English spelling of Gaelic <mac Gille Bhrath>. Something close to <Alesone MacGillivray> would therefore be reasonable provided that (1) the borrowing into Scots of this particular Gaelic surname occurred within the SCA period, and (2) some form of <Alison> was in use in (Lowland) Scotland after that borrowing took place.

There's no particular difficulty with the second condition: as can be seen from the following list, forms of <Alison> are well-attested in late-period Scotland. [1]

     Alesone 1492
     Alison 1524
     Elison 1514
     Alysone 1535
     Helysoune 1535
     Allison 1554
     Ellesone 1566

Moreover, these forms suggest that the specific spelling <Alesone> might have been used well after the instance recorded in 1492.

Condition (1) is much more problematic. <Macgillivray> (in any form) seems to be strongly associated with the island of Mull, in the part of Scotland that was culturally and linguistically Gaelic. [1] All of the available period citations are from this area, and all are consistent with Gaelic naming practice. [3] Even <Martin Mc illura> (also <McIlvora>, <M'Ilvra>, and <M'Ilwra>), whose name appears in Argyllshire records at some point between 1626 and 1650, may still have had a completely Gaelic name, since <Martin> was borrowed into Gaelic at an early date.

This evidence doesn't rule out the possibility that in some form <Macgillivray> was borrowed into Scots as a hereditary surname by 1600, but it doesn't support that possibility, either. Therefore we cannot recommend combining this surname with a non-Gaelic given name.

In theory there is another alternative, namely, putting the whole name into Gaelic. There is a modern Gaelic form of <Alison>, but unfortunately we have no reason to think that this borrowing is period. The name <Alice>, on the other hand, was taken to Ireland by the Anglo-Normans and borrowed into Irish Gaelic as <Ailis> (pronounced roughly \AHL-yish\). We don't have any evidence that it was also used by Scottish speakers of Gaelic, but period Scottish records of feminine Gaelic names are very skimpy, and it certainly may have been. If so, it could be combined with the feminine Gaelic form of the patronymic to make <Ailis inghean Ghille Bhrath> 'Alice daughter of Gillivray', pronounced roughly \AHL-yish NEE-yen YILL-eh VRAH\.

Arval Benicoeur also contributed to this letter. We hope that it is useful and that you will write again if you have any further questions.

For the Academy,

Talan Gwynek


[1] Black, George F. The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986).

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

[3] There is one apparent exception, <Archibald Makillewray> 1535. However, it comes from a Scots record, and we know that for some reason <Archibald> was usual Scots substitute for Gaelic <Gilleasbuig>. (This is the name sometimes represented in English as <Gillespy>.) It's very likely that this man's name was actually <Gilleasbuig mac Gille Bhrath> in Gaelic.