Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 841

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 841

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/841

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

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked for information about <Moreg> as a Scottish given name. Here is what we have found.

We do not find <Moreg> in our references. <Morag> is a modern Scottish Gaelic feminine name [1], which has been used fairly widely in the Society along with <Moreach> and <Moraig>, but we can find no evidence that any of these names existed in period. <Morag> probably arose as a diminutive of <Mór>, which was the most common Gaelic woman's names in late medieval Ireland [2] and may well have been used in Gaelic Scotland as well. The slash represents an accent on the <o>, and the name is pronounced \MORE\.

There was an early Irish name <Muirecht>, pronounced \MEER-yakht\ [2, 3]. We don't find examples of that name in Scotland, but it was used in Ireland and could also have made the crossing to Scotland.

If your client would like more information about Scottish names, we recommend that you give her copies of some of the articles in our library. In particular, we recommend:

Scottish Names 101
http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scot_names_101.html

A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Names http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/simple_sc_gaelic_names_12.html

Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames
http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/quick_gaelic_bynames.html

Before I close, I'd like to clarify the purpose of the Academy. Our goal is to help Societyfolk choose and use names that are appropriate to the historical cultures they are re-creating. Our work can often be used to support a submission to the College of Arms, but that is not our aim. Our standards and focus are different from those of the College of Arms and not always completely compatible.

I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again -- or even better, have your clients write us directly -- if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by no one yet.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling. _The New American Dictionary of

First Names_. New York : Signet Books, 1983.

[2] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire. _Irish Names_. Dublin :

Lilliput Press, 1990.

[3] O'Brien, M. A., ed., Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae (Dublin: The Dublin

Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976).