Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 751

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 751

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/751

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 our opinion of <Loachailan SilverWolfe> as a 13th, 14th, or early 15th century Scottish Gaelic name. Here is what we have found.

<Lachlann> is itself a Scottish Gaelic name, earlier spelled <Lochlann> and occasionally recorded as <Lachlainn>. In early Irish records, it appears as <Lochluinn>, <Lachlainn>, and <Lachluinn>, but those spellings are not appropriate to your persona [1, 2]. The name was in use throughout your period; it is recorded in a variety of forms [1, s.n. MacLachlan]:

Gileskel Mclachlan 1292
Gillaspy MacLachlan 1308
Reginald son of Lauchlan 1327
Richard filius Lochlane 1329
Lachlan Maclachlan c.1425

Note that these documents were not written in Gaelic. Very few Gaelic documents exist from before 1600; records were kept in Latin and in Scots. Scots was a language closely related to contemporary English. Spellings were normally adapted to the language of the writer.

<Silverwolf> is not a Gaelic word; it is English. Gaelic and English (or even Scots) were not mixed in period names. Even if you translate the word into Gaelic, it would not be an appropriate surname for your persona: As far as our research has shown, Scottish Gaels did not use this kind of descriptive byname based on animal words [4].

There is one interesting possibility that might appeal to you. The Gaelic word for "wolf" is <Faol>. There is a Gaelic given name, <Faolán>, based on this word [3]. (The slash represents a sharp accent on the preceding vowel.) The most common type of byname used in Gaelic names is the patronymic, i.e. a byname which identifies a man's father. If your persona's father were named <Faolán>, then you could be called <Lachlann mac Faolain>. (The additional 'i' in <Faolain> is a grammatical change required in Gaelic; it makes the word mean "Faolan's".) But we can take it a step closer to the name you wanted: Another type of byname common in Gaelic was color words, usually used to describe hair color or complexion. The name <Faolán Bhain> means "White Faolan", probably meaning that he had very light blond hair. If your father had that name, you could have been known as <Lachlann mac Faolain Bhain> "Lachlann son of White Faolan", pronounced \LAHKH-lahn mac FAY-lahn VAHN\. \KH\ represents the hard, rasping "ch" sound in German <Bach> or Scottish <loch>.

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.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and

History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986).

[2] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on

Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983).

[3] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The

Lilliput Press, 1990).