ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1517 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1517 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: "S Friedemann" 11 Apr 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help creating an authentic Scottish feminine name with as your given name and the feminine form of , perhaps , for your surname. (The slash represents an accent over the previous letter.) You also wanted to know whether or was more accurate for a Scottish feminine name. Here is the information we have found. In 12th and 13th centuries, several languages were spoken in the area that is Scotland today. The major ones were: *Norse, spoken in the far north and the western isles. *English, spoken mainly in the southeast. *Gaelic, spoken through much of the country. *Norman French, spoken by Norman settlers and their Scoto-Norman descendents, mostly in the south. >From the late 14th century onward, there were two main languages spoken in Scotland: Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands, and Scots, spoken in the Lowlands, including the royal court and towns. Gaelic is the same language spoken in Ireland at this time; Scots is closely related to contemporary English. Names were formed quite differently in these various languages. In the earlier period, there was considerable interaction among the cultures and quite a bit of sharing of names. In the later period, the two cultures were more separate, and names were entirely in one language or the other. In either case, the time and culture that you choose for your persona will determine how your name should be constructed. Your question was quite broad; we'll answer it as well as we can. is an excellent Scots name. Various spellings of that we found are as follows[1]: Taillor 1408 Taylyour 1419 Talyowr 1430 Taylyhour 1430 Talyhour 1453 Tal3oure 1467 Thail3or 1470 Thal3eour 1484 Tal3eour 1493 Tal3ior 1494 Arthur Tail3oure 1463 Tayl3owr 1525 Telyour 1534 Tal3our 1540 Tailliour 1588 Tailyeour 1598 In these names, the <3> represents the Scots character , which is pronounced like the in . All the spellings have roughly the same pronunciation: \TAIL-your\. This surname, however, is a Scots surname, and would be found in the Lowlands. It would not be appropriate in a Gaelic name. If you want a Scottish Gaelic name, then we recommend you read the following articles on the web, which discuss the formation of medieval Scottish Gaelic names in detail: "Scottish Names 101" http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/scotnames101.html "Quick & Easy Gaelic Bynames" http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/index.html "Simple Guide to 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.html If you want a Scottish Gaelic name that would be appropriate for someone from the Highlands, we recommend that you use instead of a surname like , a patronymic byname (a byname identifying who your father was). (a Gaelic borrowing of the name [2]) the daughter of would have been known as . (The change from to is required by Gaelic grammar.) The words and are both Gaelic, so neither is appropriate in a Scots name. The feminine equivalent of "son" is "daughter," but it's also Gaelic, so it too isn't appropriate in a Scots name. is a grammatical form of . In particular, it is the lenited genitive (possessive) form [3]. means "of the son." It could be used in a Gaelic woman's name if she were identified as her grandfather's child: Aifric, daughter of Domhnall mac Donnchaidh could have been called "Aifric daughter of the son of Donnchadh." The phrase was pronounced \IN-yen vick\ in early medieval Gaelic, but that became \NEE-yen vick\ in late-period Scottish Gaelic, and later contracted to \NICK\. Some time after our period the Gaelic spelling followed the pronunciation, producing the word "daughter of the son." 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 Effrick neyn Kennyeoch, Margaret Makafee, Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael April 11, 1999 --------------------------------------- References & Notes: [1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986). [2] Arval Benicoeur, "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998) [URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/arval/scotgaelfem/]. [3] Lenition is a softening of the initial sound of a word that is required by Gaelic grammar in some circumstances. The full details are available online at http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/obrien/#lenition. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in 'n', like , the letters 'D' and 'T' do not lenite.