ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 830 http://www.s-gabriel.org/830 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 19 Apr 1998 From: Jaymi Bouziden Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel. You asked for information on a 16th century Scottish Gaelic patronymic byname based on or which you can combine with your given name . is a later-period English form of the Irish Gaelic masculine given name . [1] We have no examples of the given name in Scotland. It does appear in two surnames: 1622, probably an Irish surname brought to Scotland by immigrants; and or 1541, found in Islay, the southernmost of the Inner Hebrides. [2] The patronymic byname , identifying you as the son of a man named Conchobar, and pronounced \mahk KON-khur\ or \mahk KON-a-khur\ [3], would probably be appropriate for someone from the Western Isles, though the name is more in keeping with Irish practice than Scottish. We can also offer some similar-sounding Scottish Gaelic given names. Name Pronunciation Cona/n [4] \KOHN-ahn\ Conaing \KOHN-eng\ Conn \KOHN\ Connall \KOHN-ahl\ Congal \KOHN-ghahl\ [2,5] (The \gh\ represents a voiced version of the hard, rasping \ch\ sound in the Scottish "loch" or the German "Bach".) Any of these, combined with the given name , would create an authentic 16th century Scottish Gaelic name. If you would prefer to use one of the alternatives suggested above, we would be happy to verify the correct form and pronunciation of the patronymic based on your choice. We can find no evidence that was used as a given name or as a patronymic byname in Scotland in our period. The Gaelic form is a strictly modern variant. [1] We hope this letter has been helpful. Please write us again if you have any more questions or if any of this letter has been unclear. Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, and Lindorm Eriksson contributed research and commentary for this letter. For the Academy, Livia Montgomery ______________________ [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire. _Irish Names_. Dublin : The Lilliput Press, 1990. [2] Black, George F. _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning, and History_. New York : New York Public Library, 1986. [3] means "son"; the spelling change from to is required by Gaelic grammar and indicates the genitive, or possessive, form of the name, i.e. rather than . The \kh\ is pronounced like the hard, rasping \ch\ in the Scottish "loch" or the German "Bach"; the \u\ is pronounced like the \u\ in "but". [4] The slash represents an acute accent over the preceding vowel. [5] O'Brien, M.A. (ed.) _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_. Dublin : The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976. _______________________