ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 979 http://www.s-gabriel.org/979 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 24 May 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help documenting as an Irish name so that it can be registered. Here is what we have found. Before I start, I'd like to clarify the service that the Academy offers. We try to help Societyfolk in choosing and using names that fit the historical cultures they are trying to re-create. Our research can sometimes be used to support submissions to the College of Arms, but that it not our goal and our results are often incompatible with the College's needs. If your main goal is to register a particular name, then we may not be able to help you. We could not find evidence that is a period Irish name; we suspect it may be a variant of one of several Irish surnames: , , or (the slash represents an accent on the preceding letter). Our sources don't tell us the origin of . is probably a corruption of "descendant of Aracha/n", and apparently derives from a nickname, "anger" or "mannekin, little man" [1, 2]. As you can see, none of these surnames was based on a given name that sounded anything like , so this possibilty is a dead end. We did find a given name which looks something like the name your lord wants: or , which was a fairly common name from the Middle Ages to the end of our period. The first spelling was in use roughly up to the year 1200; the second one is the later-period spelling. Both are pronounced \FYAR-gahn-ahnm\ [3]. The surname is not a likely one for period Ireland. Irish Gaels almost never used surnames based on place names, and we have found none based on the name of a river. Surnames based on river names are rare in English, too, so we do not recommend this choice if you want a historically-accurate name. In period, most Irish men were known either as their father's sons (e.g. "Fearganainm, son of Conn") or as members of their clans (e.g. "Fearganainm, of the O Connor clan"). In later period, it was not unusual for records to show both bynames for a single man, . For more information on the formation of Gaelic names, you could read this article, available on the web: Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/quick_gaelic_bynames.html 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. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 24 May 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. O/ Faracha/in [2] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3), s.nn. Farren, Ferrigan. [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -