ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 814
http://www.s-gabriel.org/814
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* NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports     *
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18 Apr 1998
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked for information about the Irish name <Dierdre Dubhdessa Kilgore>,
which you intended to mean <Dierdre the descendant of Dessa Kilgore>.  Here
is what we have found.

<Dierdre> is a modern variant spelling of <Deirdre>, the name of a
fictional heroine of "The Sons of Uisneach", a medieval Irish legend.  In
Irish literature, it is recorded as <Derdriu> (Early Gaelic, pre-900 AD),
<Deirdri> and <Deirdre> (Middle Gaelic, 900-1200), pronounced roughly
\DEHR-dreh\; but we have no evidence that it was ever used by real people
in period Ireland.  We do have one example of the name in use in Scotland
in 1166, where it was recorded in the anglicized spelling <Deredere>,
representing the same pronunciation.  The Scottish use may imply that the
name was used in Ireland in the same period, but we have no evidence to
support this speculation.  <Deirdre> became popular in Ireland during the
Celtic revival of the early 20th century, but was apparently not used
before then [1].  For more information about the history of the name
<Deirdre>, please see reference [1], which is available on the web.

Unfortunately, the remainder of your name, <Dubhdessa Kilgore>, doesn't
mean what you think it does.  <Dubh> is a Gaelic word meaning "black" or
"dark"; it does not mean "descendant" or "grand-daughter".  We could not
find evidence that <Dubhdessa> or <Dessa> is an Irish name or any kind.  If
you can tell us more about where you found these names, we may be able to
provide more information.  We did find a feminine name <Duibheasa>,
pronounced \DIV-yah-sa\, which was common in Ireland in the 13th and 14th
centuries [4], but it doesn't have any meaning like the one you want.

The Ulster surname <Kilgore> and its earlier form <Mac Kilgore> are English
spellings of a Gaelic name.  We found an example recorded as <M'Kilger>
about 1600 in an Anglo-Irish document [3].

Our sources aren't unanimous on the origin of <Kilgore>.  One suggests that
it is <Mac Giolla Ghea/irr> [2] and another suggests <Mac Giolla Ghairbh>
or <Mac Giolla Ghe/ir> [3].  All of these names means "son of {someone}".
<Giolla Ghea/irr>, <Giolla Ghairbh>, and <Giolla Ghe/ir> may have been
given names, or they may have been descriptions meaning "servant of Saint
Gea/rr" and "servant of Saint Garbh".  None of these names is appropriate
for a woman, of course: A woman could not be "son of" anyone.  If you
wanted to use one of these Gaelic forms, you could convert it to its
feminine form.  We've given the feminine forms here with pronunciations:

  inghean Ghiolla Ghea/irr  \IN-yen YILL-a YAHR\
  inghean Ghiolla Ghairbh   \IN-yen YILL-a GHARV\
  inghean Ghiolla Ghe/ir    \IN-yen YILL-a YAIR\

The \GH\ sound in the second pronunciation is the guttural sound, the
voiced version of the harsh, rasping <ch> sound in Scottish <loch> or
German <Bach>.


For more information about period Irish names, you may want to read the
collection of articles on Irish names available on the web at:

  http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/celtic.html

In particular, we recommend "Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames", a good general
introduction to the subject, which is at:

  http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/quick_gaelic_bynames.html


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.  We were assisted in
researching and writing this letter by Margaret Makafee and Talan Gwynek.

For the Academy,


  Naitan de Yerdeburc and Arval Benicoeur

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References

[1] Arval Benicoeur, "Concerning the Name 'Dierdre'", The Problem Names
    Project (WWW: Sharon L. Krossa, 1997).
    http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/problemnames/deirdre.html

[2] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic
    Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3). 

[3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_
    (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). 

[4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The
    Lilliput Press, 1990). 

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