ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 893
http://www.s-gabriel.org/893
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* NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports     *
*       contain errors that we haven't yet      *
*       corrected.  Please use it with caution. *
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* NOTE: Later research turned up additional     *
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From: 
9 Apr 1998


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked us about the name <Etain inghean Tristan> ("Etain, daughter of
Tristan") as an 11th century Irish Gaelic name for a woman, and about
proper pronounciation.  If <Tristan> is not Irish, you indicated an
interest in other names beginning with 'T'.

First, <inghean> is a later form.  For your period, the spelling would be
<ingen>, pronounced \IN-yen\.

<E/tai/n> is an early name, pronunced \AY-deen\ [1].  The name appears in
legend, but was also the name of a saint in the royal family of Connacht
and of a woman who lived in the 13th century.  This is a fine choice for
your period. Note: Throughout this letter, the '/' represents an accent
over the preceding letter.

Unfortunately, <Tristan> in not an Irish name.  It is a 12th or 13th
century French form of a name that appeared in Arthurian literature,
possibly derived from a 7th century Cornish name <Drosta/n>.  The name was
not used in Ireland, not even in Irish versions of the Tristan stories,
and this particular spelling could not have existed before the 12th
century [2,3]. 

Here is a list of 10th or 11th century Irish names beginning with 'T' [1]. 
The first column is the form that would have been used by your father; the
second column is the grammatical form that would be used in your name
after <ingen>;  and the last column is the pronunciation of the second
column spelling: 

  Tadc         Taidc        \TAIG\           
  Tadga/n      Tadga/in     \TAHDH-gahn\
  Taichlech    Taichlig     \TAH-lich\ or \TAICH-lich\
  Tomaltach    Tomaltaig    \TOME-ahl-tich\  
  Tairdelbach  Tairdelbaig  \TAR-dhel-vich\   
  Tipraite     Tipraite     \TIB-reed-jeh\
  Tressach     Tressaig     \TRYAHS-sich\  

  Pronounciation notes:
    \AI\ as in <aisle>
    \ch\ as in German <ich>
    \dh\ is the sound of <th> in <this> or <that>
    \Y\ is a consonant, as in <yes>

We recommend <E/tai/n ingen {X}>, where {X} is one of the forms in the
second column above.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.
Arval Benicouer and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter. 

In service,
--Walraven van Nijmegen
Academy of S. Gabriel

[1] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in and Fidelma Maguire _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The 
    Lilliput Press, 1990)

[2] George F. Black, _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning, and
    History_ (New York, The New York Public Library, 1986)

[3] William J. Watson, _The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland_
    (London: William Blackwood and Sons Ltd., 1926)

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Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in 'n', like <inghean>,
the letter 'D' does not lenite.