ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2281 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2281 ************************************ 2 May 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Scottish Gaelic woman in the 15th or early 16th century. Here is what we have found. Your name is fundamentally correct for your period, though the name you've chosen for your father isn't ideal for Scotland. We will also recommend some corrections in grammar, spelling, and pronunciation. You gave the pronunciation of the second element of your name (your father's name) as \con-nor\. That's close to the modern pronunciation of the Gaelic name , often anglicized as . Did you intend that name for your father, or did you want to use ? We'll discuss both possibilities. Starting in the late 14th century, 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 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. You are interested in a Gaelic name, so we'll focus on the naming customs of that culture. However, Gaelic was rarely used as a written language in period Scotland; if your name were written, it would have been in Scots or Latin. Once you settled on the final form of your name, we'll be happy to help you figure out how it might have been written in those languages. is a variant of the more common spelling (with an acute accent mark on the second 'i'), which is an Irish borrowing of the name [1]. It was also used by Scottish Gaels: It appears in a Scottish Gaelic document from 1467 as , in a 1541 Latin document identifying a Gaelic woman as , and in late 16th century Scots documents identifying Gaels as [2, 3, 4]. Since we are fortunate enough to have Scottish Gaelic spelling from your period, we recommend you use it when you write your name in Gaelic. In all these spellings, the name was pronounced roughly \kah-TCHREE-nah\. is not a particularly good choice for your father's name. It was relatively common in medieval Ireland, where it was pronounced \KOH-nahl\ [5], but appears not to have been used in Scotland. (There is a common Scottish surname , but it actually derives from "son of Domhnall" [6].) Since it was current in Irish Gaelic in your period, it isn't an implausible name but we can't recommend it as good re-creation. is a better choice, although it was rare in Scotland. It was quite common in medieval Ireland [5] and we have found a couple examples in Scotland in your period [7]. In your culture, it was pronounced \KOHN-kho-w@r\. \OH\ represents the vowel in , \kh\ represents the raspy sound of the in the Scottish word or German , and \@\ represents the schwa sound of the 'a' in . is a form of a Gaelic masculine name usually spelled or . It is a fine choice for your period [8], and was pronounced roughly \KEN-y@kh\ [9]. To compose these elements into a complete name, we need to put your father's entire name into the genitive case (possessive form) so that your name as a whole will mean "Caitrina, Conchobhar mac Coinnich's daughter". Note the form of your father's name that we've used here: is the genitive form of , and was pronounced \KEN-y@ch\, where \ch\ represents the hissy sound of the in German words like , pronounced further forward in your mouth than \kh\. When we incorporate that into your name, the correct form is . is the possessive form of and is the possessive form of . The additional 'h' in represents a softening of the initial sound, called 'lenition', that was required by Gaelic grammar in some circumstances. The resulting name was pronounced \kah-TCHREE-na EEN-y@n KOHN-kho-w@r veek KEN-y@ch\. This sort of double patronymic was not particularly common and was probably used only in special circumstances [10]. Most often, you have been identified simply as . 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 Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, Adelaide de Beaumont, Maridonna Benvenuti, Mari neyn Brian, Margaret Makafee, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 2 May 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Caitri/ona. [2] A photograph of the "1467 MS", a Gaelic genealogical manuscript, which is shelf-marked 72.1.1 in the Scottish National Library. Colm O'Boyle has kindly helped with our transcriptions from this manuscript. [3] Ewen, C. L'Estrange, _A History of Surnames of the British Isles_ (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1931; Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1968), p.209. Examples include , and . [4] Mackay, William and Herbert Cameron Boyd, eds. Records of Inverness: Volume I: Burgh Court Books: 1556-86. Aberdeen: The New Spalding Club, 1911. [5] O/ Corra/in and Maguire s.nn. Conall, Conchobar. [6] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. MacConnal. [7] Black s.n. Macconacher. He shows the patronymic rendered in Scots as and in a Scots document from 1541. [8] Black s.n. MacKenzie. derives from "son of . The originally represented the letter yogh, which was pronounced in this name like the in . We've found numerous examples of this Gaelic name recorded in Scots documents from your period: 1491, son of 1500, 1513, 1581. We also found examples representing Gaelic : and , 1629. [9] More precisely, was pronounced \KEN~-@kh\. The symbol \N~\ represents a palatalized \N\, which is the sound of the in the French word or the Italian , or of the n-tilde in Spanish . Similarly, was actually pronounced \EEN~-@n\. [10] We have some evidence of multiple patronymics used by Gaels in 16th century Scotland. For example, four examples appear in court records from Lochnell c.1591. These include two women's names, rendered in Scots: Christian Nichean vic Couil vic Gillespie Mary voir Nicvolvoire vic Coil vic Neil Margaret Makafee, "Names from Papers Relating to the Murder of the Laird of Calder" (WWW: self published). http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~grm/calder.html