Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 803

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 803

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/803

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 suggestions for a given name to go with the surname <Shurlock>, which we previously recommended for a 15th century Anglo-Irish persona. Here is what we have found.

As we explained in our last letter, <Shurlock>, <Scurlock>, or <Sherlock> was an English name that was carried to Ireland by English immigrants. It has a Gaelic form, <Scurlóg> [3] or <Sgorlocc> [1], pronounced essentially the same, but was used by families of English ancestry. Those families tended to continue to use English given names, though they might have used Gaelic forms of those names when speaking Gaelic. We found record of a <Risdred Sgorlocc> (which is "Richard Scurlock"), sheriff of County Clare, who died 1599 [1].

In Ireland in this period, many noble families tended to give their children the same names from generation to generation. The following list contains names which were used by some Anglo-Irish families in the 15th century [1]. For each name, I've given the English form, some equivalent Gaelic forms where I could find them, and some of the families that used the name frequently [1, 2]. (The slash represents an accent on the preceding letter.)

Garrett, Gerald Gearoit, Gearóid, Geróitín FitzGerald

You could combine any of these names with your surname, for example <Thomas Shurlock>. In a Gaelic-speaking context, you could use the Gaelic form, <Tómas Sgorlocc>.

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 Charles O'Connor and Talan Gwynek.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] _Annala Rioghachta Eireann: Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the

Four Masters from the Earliest period to the Year 1616_ edited from MSS. in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy and of Trinity College, Dublin with a translation by John O'Donovan, VII Volumes (Hodges, Smith, and Co: Dublin, 1854).

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

Lilliput Press, 1990).

[3] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic

Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3).