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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You sent us several questions. We will answer them in three parts of which this is the first. You asked for help forming a name appropriate for a Gaelic speaking woman in 16th century Scotland. You wrote that you are interested in the given names <Kensey Leigh> or <Eowyn>, or a name beginning with \E\, or \M\. You said that you want your father's name to be <Tiernan> or <Connor>, or to begin with <C> or <R>. Here is what we have found.
Your request is very complicated and there's no way to include all of it in one name. Rather than run through every detail that you included, I'm going to discuss some of them, give some general information about late-period Scottish Gaelic names, and ask you to contact us again with a more specific question if you want to pursue any of the possibilities I suggest.
<Kensey> is not a period feminine given name. It derives from an Old English masculine given name, <Cynesige>, which is recorded in England as late as the 12th century in the form <Kensi>. It dropped out of use at that point, like most Old English names, but it remained in use as a surname, which originally mean "son/daughter of Kensi" [1, 2]. As far as we can tell, it was never used in period in Scotland or as a feminine name. In the 19th and 20th century, it has been quite common for surnames to be re-cycled as women's given names (e.g. <Kimberley>, <Brooke>, <Ashley>, but it wasn't done in our period. If you've seen <Kensey> in modern use as a given name, it may be another example of this pattern.
<Leigh> is another English surname which has recently been re-used as a woman's name. This one is derived from a place name, or more accurately from any of many place names. The Middle English word <leigh> meant "clearing in the woods", and was commonly used in place names and personal names from the 12th to the 14th century [1]:
Ailric de la Leie 1148
William de la Le 1207
John de Leye 1275
Richard atte Legh 1296
John del Lee 1384
Hugh atte Leygh 1392
Some of these examples were recorded quite close to the Scottish border, so it is not impossible that this byname (and later surname) could have been used in the Lowlands in the 16th century, but it was not used as a given name until after our period. It was probably not used as a woman's given name until the late 20th century, when it gained popularity in response to the fame of actress Vivian Leigh [3].
<Eowyn> appears to be Old English feminine given name, but it is not one that is recorded in our references. It is plausible: The element <Eo-> exists, though it is rare, and <-wyn> was very common [4]. Even if <Eowyn> did exist, though, it is not Gaelic.
Double given names or middle names were unknown in Scotland until after our period. To construct an authentic name, you should choose one given name only.
Here are some Gaelic women's given names that might appeal to you. Existing records of Scottish Gaelic women's names are very scanty; we only have a few examples. They offer three names that begin with <E> or <M>, which I've listed below with their pronunciations.
Beyond this short list, we had to turn to Irish records for other possibilities [8]. Scottish and Irish Gaelic were the same language in our period, and although their naming practices were not identical, they did share many names. So an Irish name may well have been used in contemporary Gaelic-speaking Scotland.
Eibhlín \EV-leen\
Eithne \AY-nyeh\
Eamhnait \AHV-nitch\
Eórann \OH-rahn\
Earcnait \ARK-nitch\
E/abha \AY-vah\
Máirghéad \MARE-ade\
Meádhbh \MEHV\
Móirne \MORE-nyeh\
Muireann \MEER-ahn\
The slashes in some names represent accents on the preceding vowels.
In your period, Gaelic speakers were known almost exclusively as their father's children. (In particular, they did not use clan names or surnames in the modern style. There were clans in 16th century Scotland, but they were different from the modern clan system and people didn't use clan names as their own surnames.) A typical Scottish Gaelic woman's name is <Marsaili inghean Domhnaill> "Marsaili daughter of Domhnall". You can choose your father's name and plug it into this formula. The change in spelling of <Domhnall> is required by Gaelic grammar and have the effect of making the word mean "Domhnall's". The full name is pronounced \MAR-se-lee NEE-yen DOHN-all\.
Your choices for your father's name are correct, but both names were rare in Scotland. <Tiernan> is an anglicized form of the Gaelic name <Tighearnán>, pronounced \TYAHR-nahn\, but we couldn't find an example of it in Scottish records [7, 8]. <Connor> in an anglicized form of <Conchobhar> \KOHN-hour\ [8]. We have found a few examples of this name in Scotland [7]. Here's how you would use them in your name:
Marsaili inghean Tighearnáin \MAR-se-lee NEE-yen TYAHR-nan\ Ealusaid inghean Chonchobhair \EHL-uh-satch NEE-yen KHOHN-khour\
The added h in Chonchobhair is required by Gaelic grammar and is reflected in the change of pronunciation from \C\ to \KH\; \KH\ is the the <ch> sound in German <Bach> or Scottish <loch>. As I noted earlier, neither <Tighearnán> nor <Conchobhar> was common in Scotland in your period. If you'd like us to suggest some other names, please write us again.
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 Talan Gwynek, Alan Fairfax, and Affrick nin Kenneoch.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995).
[2] Selten, Bo, _The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names_, Volumes 1 & 2. (Lund, Sweden: Royal Society of Letters at Lund, 1979).
[3] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983).
[4] Boehler, Maria, _Die altenglischen Frauenamen_ (Nendlem, Liechtenstein: Krauss Reprint, 1967 [1930]).
[5] A photograph of the "1467 MS", a Gaelic genealogical manuscript, which is shelf-marked 72.1.1 in the Scottish National Library. Colm O'Boyle has kindly helped with our transcriptions from this manuscript.
[6] Woulfe, Patrick, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation).
[7] Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986).
[8] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990).
Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in n, like inghean, the letter D does not lenite.