Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 782

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/782

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

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on "Connor MacGowan," which you wanted to use as a Gaelic name from before 1400.

<Connor> is a late-period English spelling of the Gaelic name <Conchobhar>. Before 1400, the only English form we found was <Conowre> from 1303. (1) This name is pronounced roughly \CON-ove-er\.

<Mac Gowan> is an English spelling of the Gaelic name <mac Ghabhann>, which means "son of (the) smith." This is pronounced roughly \mac GHAH-vahn\. (2)

Your persona's name could have been recorded in either English or Gaelic, depending on who was recording it. Thus, you could use the English form <Conowre Mac Gowan> and the Gaelic form <Conchobhar mac Gabhann>. <Connor Mac Gowan> would be appropriate after 1500.

Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, and Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Newport B. White, ed., The Red Book of Ormond (From the Fourteenth-Century Original preserved at Kilkenny Castle, with missing portions supplied from the Fifteenth-Century Transcript in the Bodleian Library)" (Dublin: The Stationery Office, 1932).

(2) MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985