ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2156 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2156 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 23 Oct 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an Irish or Scottish Gael living 1000-1400. This letter is a brief answer to your question. You've chosen a fine name. Both and were common names in Ireland through your period. The slash in the name represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. These are early medieval spellings of the two names, appropriate before about 1200. Later, was spelled ; remained unchanged [1, 2]. An early medieval Fa/ela/n son of Cathal would have been known as . Later in period, the same name would have been . In the 11th century, the name would have been pronounced \FEH-lahn mahk KAH-thahl~\; later in period \FAY-lahn mahk KAH-hahl~\. Note that the shift in pronunciation doesn't line up with the change in spelling. The symbol \l~\ represents the sound of in the French word or the Spanish . You also asked about the meanings of these names. That's a tricky question to answer, since names don't really have meanings. Almost all names ultimately derived from a common word in some language, but even when that association was still recognizable to people using the name, they didn't expect the meaning of the word to say anything about the person using the name. When we meet a woman today who is named , we don't expect her to be grey-green or bushy. derives from an Old Irish word for "wolf" plus the diminutive ending <-a/n>. derives from a word that meant "battle" [2, 3]. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 23 Oct 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. Cathal, Fa/ela/n. [3] See Academy report 2669 for more information about the name . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addendum, Arval, 16 Mar 2003: Added note [3].