ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2274 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2274 ************************************ From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 6 Apr 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate surname for a woman living near the Isle of Mull off the coast of Scotland in about 1580; you also asked for suggestions on appropriate given names, possibly beginning with . Here is the information we have found. Starting in the late 14th century, there were two main languages spoken in Scotland: Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands and Western Isles, and Scots, spoken in the Lowlands, including the royal court and towns. Gaelic was the same language spoken in Ireland at this time; Scots was closely related to contemporary English. Names were formed quite differently in the two languages, and the two styles of naming did not mix. Since you specified Mull, one of the Western Isles, you will definitely want a Gaelic name. is a modern English spelling of the Gaelic byname [1, 2]. In period Gaelic, a man was generally described as his father's son; likewise a woman was described as her father's daughter. This type of byname is called a "patronymic". The byname literally means 'son of Gilla Eoin' [3]. These patronymic surnames were used literally to identify a man's father; the practice of using them to identify clan membership is a modern development. In period, no woman would have been called anything in Gaelic since she wasn't anyone's son. The standard way to form a patronymic byname for a woman is to use 'daughter', followed by her father's name, given in the genitive, or possessive, form, and lenited. The genitive is an altered form of a name reflecting possession, like from . Lenition is a softening of certain consonant sounds required by Gaelic grammar; it was often reflected in spelling in your period by inserting after the softened consonant [4]. For example, a woman called whose father was would be known as 'Marsaili, daughter of Giolla Eoin'. It was pronounced \MAHR-s@-lee EEN-y@n YIL-@ YOH-@n~\, where \@\ represents the sound of in and , \OH\ represents the sound of in , and \n~\ represents the sound of in Spanish and in French and Italian . Gaelic was not used as a written language in period Scotland as often as other languages, such as Latin and Scots; we have few surviving Gaelic documents that include names, so we can only prove that a small number of feminine Gaelic names were used there. There's a short list of possibilities in this article: "Some Scottish Gaelic Feminine Names" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/scotgaelfem/ Since most of the citations we have for names in Scotland are recorded in Scots or Latin, we've had to deduce the Gaelic form of most of the names on this list. For example, we find the name recorded in a Latin document in 1465, for a woman we believe was a Gael [5]. We also find a woman we believe was a Gael recorded in a 1527 Scots document as [6]. From these examples, we surmise that the Gaelic name which we find recorded after 1600 as or was likely used in period (though we can't be certain how it was spelled). We believe this name was pronounced \MAHR-s@l\ or \MAHR-s@-lee\. If you'd like a few more options for given names, the following articles include Irish Gaelic names which might appeal to you: "Dated Names found in O Corrain and Maguire's _Irish Names_" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/ocm/ "Women's Names in the Annals of Connacht: 1244-1544" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsConnacht/ Since these articles contain names recorded in Ireland, they aren't the best tools for building a Scottish Gaelic name. However, because Irish and Scottish Gaelic were the same language in our period and because there was considerable contact between the two countries, we consider it plausible to assume that names common among Irish Gaels were also used by Scottish Gaels. A woman might find her name recorded in different ways depending upon whether the document was written in Gaelic or Scots. Scribes writing in Scots recorded the names of Gaels in forms consistent with their own language and naming customs. In some cases, they spelled Gaelic names in ways that approximated their pronunciation. Since the Scots spelling system was very different from the Gaelic system, the result often looked very different from the original Gaelic name. In addition, Scots scribes did not always preserve the gender-specific bynames used in Gaelic. For example, we find a citation of a woman recorded in a 1540 Scots document as [7]; this woman was likely known to her Gaelic-speaking neighbors as . We would certainly not be surprised if a woman around 1580, known to her Gaelic neighbors as , were recorded as in a Scots document [1]. We 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 Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Talan Gwynek and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 6 April 2001 References: [1] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Maclean. We find the name recorded in Scots and Latin documents as in 1573, , and in 1588, and in 1595. [2] Bannerman, John M. and Ronald Black "A Sixteenth-Century Gaelic Letter", _Scottish Gaelic Studies_, Vol. XIII, Part I, Autumn 1978. This letter from the chief of the Macleans is dated around 1593. In it, he uses the spelling , so we believe that this spelling is most appropriate for your period. [3] is a compound given name which means 'servant of (Saint) John'. Period Gaels considered the names of certain saints and religious figures too holy for use by common folk; as a result, compound names meaning 'servant of (the saint in question)' were used. Although is two words, it was used as a single given name. [4] Lenition generally affects the initial consonant sound. Sometimes a small dot over the affected letter is used to indicate lenition rather than after the letter. If you are interested in why this softening occurs and how it affects different letters, we recommend the article, "Lenition in Gaelic Orthography", available online at: http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotlang/lenition.shtml. [5] Munro, Jean, and R.W. Munro. Acts of the Lords of the Isles: 1336-1493, Scottish History Society, 4th Series, vol. 22. Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1986, B41 gives the record in Latin of a marriage dispensation dated 1465 for "Roderick Macliode and Marcella Celestini de Insulis." [6] Black, s.n. Fuktor gives the citation, "Katherine Fuktour and Marsle hyr dotthir..." in 1527. [7] Black, s.n. Mackail.