ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1262 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1262 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: "S Friedemann" 3 Oct 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about the Irish feminine name , which you intended to mean "Brigit of the Little People." You wanted to know if this would be appropriate for the period between 800 and 1300. Here is the information we have found. was an Irish goddess who became a saint after the Irish converted to Christianity in the 5th century. We don't know if her name was given to children before the conversion, but after that, the Irish tended to avoid naming their children after the holiest saints. did not come into common use in Ireland until modern times. Names such as or , meaning "servant of [Saint] Bridget," were used instead [1]. (The slashes represent accents over the previous letters.) These are pronounced \MULL VREE-djeh\, with the \mull\ as in "pull" \GILL-a VREE-djeh\, with the \g\ as in "get" was used as both a masculine and feminine name, but was exclusively masculine. The word in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic means "host, multitude, crowd, army." In period, it had military overtones. We found no evidence that means "of the Little People," or that it was used as a personal nickname. We are also not aware of any authentic Gaelic nickname that would imply that one is a fairy. We suggest that you consider using a different type of nickname, one that is historically correct for your desired period in Ireland. In Gaelic culture, a woman was most often known as her father's daughter. If your father was named , you could be called "Ma/el Brigte daughter of Eoin." If you would like help choosing a name for your father, please write again with some ideas, and we'd be happy to offer suggestions. Women also used descriptive nicknames in some cases. We have an article on the web that discusses Gaelic women's names of the 12th century and gives some examples of descriptive nicknames that were used. Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's "Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae" http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Arval Benicoeur, and Pedro de Alcazar. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael October 3, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). -------------------------------------- Annotation, Aryanhwy, 24 October 2006: Later research on names used by women, specifically , which supercedes the research in this letter can be found in Academy of S. Gabriel Report #2407, http://www.s-gabriel.org/2407