Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 850

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 850

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/850

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 <Ailheanon> and <Ailgheanon> as 9th to 12th century Irish or Scottish Gaelic masculine given names, and about the name <Ailgheanon Aodh Mcgann>. Here is what we have found.

We did not find the name <Ailheanon> in our sources; we can only guess that it might be a modern variant spelling of <A/ilgen/an>, which is an early Irish man's name. (The slashes represent accents on the preceding vowels.) That name is also the form of <Ailgheanon> appropriate to your period. It is pronounced roughly \AHL-ya-nahn\ [1].

<Aodh> is a modern spelling of a name that was spelled <A/ed> in your period. It was pronounced \AY\ [1].

Although nearly all names ultimately derived from common words in some ancient language, the meanings of those root words were rarely relevent to name-giving in any culture in our period. The name <A/ed> derives from a word meaning "fire", and it is possible that someone in your period might have recognized the connection, much as we recognize the connection between the word <heather> and the name <Heather>. But we almost never think that the name _means_ "heather". The root word of the name <A/ilgen/an> means "soft, mild person" [1].

<MacGann> is an anglicized spelling of one of several different Irish surnames, including <Mac Canna> or <Mac Canann>. These were both originally patronymic bynames, i.e. names that identified a person as his father's son. If your period, Irish men were almost always identified by patronymics. <Mac Cana> and <Mac Canann> both mean "Cano's son". <Cano> is a Gaelic given name probably used in your period; <Cano mac Gartnáin> was a king in the Irish-dominated part of Scotland in the 7th century [1, 2, 3].

In order to put these elements together into a name, I need to explain a little about how early Irish naming worked. Each person had only one given name. The Irish did not use middle names or compound given names in our period. And as I noted before, early Irish men were know primarily as their father's sons. Thus, one historically correct name for your period is <A/ilgenán mac A/eda> "A/ilgenán son of A/ed>". The change of spelling of <A/ed> to <A/eda> is a grammatical requirement; it puts the name in a possessive form, like <John's>. If you prefer that your father's name be "Cano", then you could use the name <A/ilgenán mac Cana> or <A/ilgenán mac Canann>. If you'd like to use all three names, you could describe two generations of your ancestry: <A/ilgenán mac Aéda meic

Canann>. The word <meic> is a genitive (possessive) form of <mac>; it is
pronounced \vick\.

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 and Margaret M'Fee.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The

Lilliput Press, 1990).

[2] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on

Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983).

[3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_

(Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation).