ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 955 http://www.s-gabriel.org/955 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* From: "S Friedemann" 11 May 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information on the name Irish feminine name , with your father's name either or . You wanted to know what means, what time period it is from, and you asked for help creating the rest of your name. Here is the information that we have found. We find (pronounced \SAHR-nitch\), where the slash represents an accent over the previous letter, in a 12th century manuscript that records older genealogies. [1] There is a St. Sa/rnat found in the 6th century. [2] It is a feminine form of , which is either from the adjective , 'best, noble,' or from the noun , 'chief, ruler.' [2] However, in most cultures within the scope of the Society, given names didn't have meanings. Nearly all names ultimately derived from normal words in some language, but it was very rare for people to continue to associate a given name with meaning of those ancient root words. Once these words came to be used as names, they were merely names and no longer had a deeper meaning. In modern English, we know that the word is related to the name , but in normal use, we don't expect the plant to have anything to do with a person who uses the name. If the connection is less obvious, the meaning is completely irrelevent. For example, derives from an Aramaic word that means "twin," but we hardly expect every Thomas today to be a twin. Similarly, while there are given names which derive from words that mean "raven" in one language or another, the connection was rarely recognized and almost never relevent. The Irish form of is . [3] The first date that we find this name in use is 940, as , lord of the Norse of Luimnech; this appears to be an Irish form of the Old Norse name . , the Irish form of , was not used until after the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, around the middle of the 13th century. If was still in use when the Irish borrowed Old Norse as , the name 'Sa/rnat daughter of Aralt' would be entirely possible. (The change from to is required by Irish grammar.) Unfortunately, we aren't sure whether this is the case. Although occurs in 10th century records, we don't know whether this is just an Irish translation of the Old Norse , or whether the Irish were actually already using the name in the borrowed form . We also don't know how long stayed in use; our examples are apparently no later than the 6th century or so. Therefore we can't say whether 'Sa/rnat daughter of Aralt,' actually would have been used. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Josh Mittleman, Brian M. Scott, and Alan Terlep. For the Academy, Sara L. Friedemann May 11, 1998 ----------------------------------------------- References: [1] Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, "Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" (WWW, Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996) URL:http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html. [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Irish Names for Children_ (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1974). [4] Sea/n Mac Airt's edition of _The Annals of Inisfallen_ (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988)