ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 833 http://www.s-gabriel.org/833 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* From: 21 Apr 1998 Greetings, Here's the information we found on "Fi/na Ca/el ingen Ui Mada/in," which you'd like to use as a 12th-century Irish name. Throughout this letter, we'll use a slash to indicate an accent, so that "i/" is an accented "i". You're quite close on the name and the pronunciation, and we were impressed with your research. We just have a couple of minor changes. and (which is a descriptive nickname meaning "slender") are exactly right. (1) is a later, contracted form of , the genitive (possessive) case of the man's name . This in turn is a later-period spelling of or , the name of a man who died in 1008. [2] In your period the name was probably written , so your byname is probably best spelled . With this modification your name would be . This would be pronounced \FEE-na kehl IN-yen ee VAH-da-dhahn\ where \dh\ is pronounced like as in . We hope that this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Talan Gwynek, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Arval Benicoeur contributed to this letter. In service, Alan Fairfax Academy of S. Gabriel (1) Jones, H. R. "Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" (WWW, Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996) http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html (2) Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation).