ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1847 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1847 ************************************ 5 Jan 2000 From: Alan Terlep Greetings, Here's the information we found on the name , which you wanted to use as a name for an Irish man living between 1000 and 1400. Your name (with some minor modifications) is historically accurate for the later part of your period. Some of the letters of your name need to be accented. We use a slash to stand for an accent, so that represents an accented . The name , with three accents, is definitely accurate for the 1300s and might possibly have been used as early as 1200. This name would be pronounced \SHAWN oh FAY-lahn\. Your arms, unfortunately, are not at all typical of Irish heraldry from the 1300s, and we recommend some major changes. Before we address your name and arms in detail, we've included some background on the languages of Ireland. The English invasion and colonization of Ireland began in the late 1100s. By 1300, it was well-established in portions of Ireland. The English brought their language with them, creating a fairly complex relationship between Gaelic and English in Ireland. Gaelic and English have totally different spelling rules. When an English scribe wrote down a Gaelic name he would spell it the way it sounded-- according to English spelling rules. English names recorded by Gaelic scribes were treated similarly. Thus, the name of an Irish person in your period could have an English form and a Gaelic form (sometimes it might also have been recorded in Latin, but we didn't attempt to guess at an appropriate Latin form for your name). At the same time, some English given names were borrowed into Gaelic--when they were, they were spelled according to Gaelic spelling rules. , for example, is a borrowing of the Anglo-Norman name . The actual pronunciation of and are very similar, and so they can be considered two forms of one name. We don't know the exact date when was first used; we estimate that it could possibly have appeared as early as 1200, but it wasn't really common until the 1300s. The spelling also appears in the Middle Ages and would be appropriate for your period. (1) is a Gaelic byname. It has different connotations in different periods; from the 1300s on a man named was a member of a clan called . (2) Note that has an accent rather than an apostrophe--the use of with an apostrophe is not appropriate for your period. Putting this all together, we can say that and are historically accurate Gaelic forms that could have been used by a man from Ireland from the 1300s on. There are several possibilities for the English form of this name. Sometimes, a Gaelic-speaking person named would have been called by the English form of his name, . We also found some names where was used as an English equivalent to . (3) also has documented English equivalents; a 14th-century English documents uses the spellings and for the Gaelic . (4) Thus you could use a variety of English forms for your name, combining or for your first name and or for your last name. In period, it is entirely likely that your name would have been recorded in many different forms, depending on the situation. In Gaelic conversation, you'd use the Gaelic form, but when writing in an English document, a scribe would use the English form. Even in one language, your name might be recorded under different spellings. Heraldry was introduced to Ireland by the English. All the heraldry from 1300s Ireland that we found was used by English people, and not by the native Gaelic population. As a result, Irish heraldry followed English style. We have many examples of English heraldry from this period. Unfortunately, your design does not follow English heraldic style from the 1300s. The bend sinister was not used to indicate illegitimacy in your period, and the field division "per bend sinister" may not have been used at all--we didn't find any examples in the many medieval coats of arms we examined. The "rompu" modification doesn't appear until the 1400s; at that time it was used only with chevrons and was very rare. (5) We didn't find any examples of bees in English heraldry from your period either, but it is not impossible that they were used. When bees were used in heraldry, they were drawn from the top rather than the side. If you would like to have arms that are consistent with Irish heraldic style from your period, we suggest "Gules, a bend between six bees Or." The motif of a bend between six objects is common in English heraldry, and this would be a plausible design for your period. (6) Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Amant le Marinier, Adelaide de Beaumont, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, Rouland Carre, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, and Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn contributed to this letter. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Your servant, Alan Fairfax Academy of S. Gabriel January 5, 2000 (1) O/ Corrain, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Seaan (2) Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. O/ Faola/in. We didn't find any evidence that means "river;" the Gaelic dictionary we checked says that the word for river in the 1300s was "abha" or "abhann." See Dinneen, Patrick S. _Foclo/ir Gaedhilge agus Be/arla_ (Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1979 [1927]), s.v. abha. (3) Ewen, C. L'Estrange, _A History of Surnames of the British Isles_ (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1931; Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1968), 210. (4) Jones, Heather Rose. "Names and Naming Practices in the Red Book of Ormond (Ireland 14th Century)" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999) Accessed December 10, 1999. http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/lateirish/ormond.html (5) Chesshyre, Hubert & Woodcock, Thomas, _Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary_, (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1992), v. 2, 277. The citation dates the arms "Argent, a chevron rompu sable," to about 1450, and note that the reference includes the comment (translated from Latin) "Completely against the law of arms. Query whether it was given out of negligence by the herald." This is good evidence that the "chevron rompu" was an aberration even in 1450. (6) Foster, Joseph, _The Dictionary of Heraldry_ (New York: Arch Cape Press, 1989).