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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel.
You asked if <Ardra> was a period name and/or spelling for an Irish feminine name for some time between 1000 and 1600, for use in <Ardra O'Conchobhair Sept of Connact>.
We can find no evidence of <Ardra> as a feminine Irish first name, or even as an Irish masculine first name or Irish surname.
Two feminine first names that are repeatedly used by women of the Clan
O'Connor
in our period are <Grace> (Gaelic: <Grainne>) and <Maud> (Gaelic: <Medb).
<Maud>
especially has a long association with the clan. Queen Medb was the legendary
queen of Connacht in _Táin B/o Cualigne_, part of the epic _Ulster Cycle_
(the "/" represents an accute accent over the preceding vowel). The name was
still in use in the 16th century; a daughter of Sir Donal O'Connor Sligo by
that name married Tibbot ne Long Bourke, the son of the famous Grace
O'Malley,
in 1585. [1,2]
We would be happy to send you a list of other common Irish first names, if you would write and tell us what beginning letter or sound you prefer.
Since you mentioned the full name you are interested in using, we thought you
might like some information on the formation of Irish feminine names in our
period. Typically, Irish names were a given name and a patronymic byname which
identified you as your father's daughter: <given name> ingen <genitive, or
possessive form of your father's name> ("ingen" simply means "daughter"). A
clan
name could be used in place of your father's name. So for much of our period
your name could be something like <Grainne ingen Toirdealbhaigh> or <Grainne
ingen uí Conchobhair> ("ingen uí" means "daughter of a male descendant" and
the "í" represents an "i" with an accute accent).
Later in our period, your name might have been <given name> ingen <father's
name> mac <grandfather's name> uí <clan/ancestral name>, or <Grainne ingen
Toirdealbhaigh mac Cathail uí Conchobhair Donn>. (These male given names were
characteristic of the family and repeated many times).
If you would like more information on Irish names, you might want to read
these
articles on the web.
Cateline de la Mor la souriete, "Choosing an Irish name". WWW : SCA, 1997.
Krossa, Sharon L. "Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames". WWW : Sharon L. Krossa, 1997.
Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasfryn, "Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'". WWW : Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996.
We hope this letter has been useful. If you have any more questions or if any of this letter has been unclear, please write again. Arval Benicoeur and Charles O'Connor provided research and commentary for this letter.
For the Academy,
Livia Montgomery
[1] Chambers, Anna. _Granuaile: The Life and Times of Grace O'Malley_. Dublin : Wolfhound Press, 1988.
[2] Chambers, Anna. _Chieftain to Knight: Tibbot-ne-Long Bourke (1567-1629)_. Dublin : Wolfhound Press, 1983.