Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 813

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/813

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

Later research turned up additional information relevant to this report. See the end of the letter for details.

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel.

You ask for information about the name <Dearforgail>. Here's what we found.

<Dearforgail> is originally an Irish name, but it is also found in Scotland. In Ireland, the form <DerbForgaill> is recorded in the 12th century. [1] We also found two undated earlier forms, <Der Bforgaill> and <Derb Forgaill>, and one undated later form, <Dearbhorgaill>[2]; these are all Gaelic forms of the name. <Dearbhorgaill> is the Common Classic Gaelic form and should be valid from around 1200 on. The pronunciation is \DYAR-VOR-gil\; the "g" is a hard g as in "get."

We also have several Latin and Scots forms which were probably recorded in the 13th century; Scots is a language similar to English that was used in Scotland in period. The forms we found include <Dervorgilla>, <Dervorgille>, <Devorgulla>, <Darworgilla>, <Dervorgoyle>, <Dervorgoyl>, and <Derworgoyl>.[3] In Scotland, documents were written in either Latin and Scots in the 12th century, so these forms are Latin and Scots renderings of the Gaelic name.

We believe that <Derb Forgaill>, <DerbForgaill>, and <Der Bforgaill> would all be appropriate names for a 12th century Irish woman. We also believe that <Dearbhorgaill> would be an excellent name for an Irish woman from the 13th to the 16th century.

If you decide to use this name and adopt a Gaelic-speaking persona, you'll want to complete your name with a patronymic byname, i.e. one that identifies your father. If your father's name was <Domhnall>, you might call yourself <Dearbhorgaill inghean Domhnaill> "Dearbhorgaill daughter of Domhnall". The change in spelling of <Domhnall> is required by Gaelic grammar: \DYAR-VOR-gil IN-yen DOHN-ahl\.

We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Talan Gwynek and Arval d'Espas Nord aided in researching and writing this letter.

In Service,
Margaret Makafee

References

[1] Tangwystl verch Morgrant Glasvryn "Femine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" (WWW. Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996)

[2] O'Corrain, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire. Irish Names. Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990.

[3] Black, George F. The Surnames of Scotland. New York Public Library, 1946

Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in n, like inghean, the letter D does not lenite.