ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 810 http://www.s-gabriel.org/810 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 14 Apr 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Warmest Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked us whether would be an appropriate 11th century name Scottish Gaelic name. Here is what we found. or is not a Gaelic name; it is a Scottish and northern English form of the Norman name . Our earliest Scottish examples of are from 1158 and 1250, the daughter of a Norman earl and the wife of a Norman lord, respectively. Given their family connections, we believe both women were Norman-descended and not Gaelic speakers [1]. Because the is derived from a Norman name, it cannot have been used in Scotland before the Norman settlement in the 12th century. If you want to use as a historically correct name for your persona, you would need to change your persona. You would need to move it forward at least into the 12th century and you would have to be a Scoto-Norman rather than a Gael. If you are interested in that possibility, please write us again and we'll give some details. If you prefer to have a Gaelic persona, then instead of you might consider one of the following Gaelic given names. They are the most similar-sounding names that we could find [2]. They are recorded in Ireland, not in Scotland, but the Gaelic of those two countries was identical in period and many names were shared. We've given approximate pronunciations between backslashes. The slash in stands for an accent over the preceding vowel. A/ine \AHN-yeh\ Ainder \AHN-year\ Ainbthen \AHN-fyahn\ Your byname is a correct Gaelic name for your period. As you know, the genitive form appears in the 12th century Book of the Deer [1, 3], and so it is certainly correct. (The genitive form of a word is the possessive form, like English .) The phrase means "Morgann's daughter", and is pronounced approximately \IN-yen VOR-gan\. The \V\ is not a typo; the feminine word has the effect of leniting (softening) the following consonant. You could combine any of the Gaelic given names listed above with and have a correct Gaelic name for your period. The research and commentary for this letter was contributed by Talan Gwynek, Margaret Makafee, and Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte. For the Academy of St. Gabriel Naitan de Yerdeburc and Arval Benicoeur - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986). [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [3] Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte, "A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Bynames", (WWW: Privately published, 18 June 1997). http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/simple_sc_gaelic_names_12.html. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -