ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2288 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2288 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 13 Apr 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a Gaelic-speaking man living in Scotland between 1100 and 1350. 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 Anglo-Norman settlers and their Scoto-Norman descendents, mostly in the south. The languages were very different and had different naming customs. There was some mixing of names from the different cultures, but most names were not adopted into all of the cultures. Since you specified that you wanted a Gaelic name, we will concentrate our discussion on Gaelic naming practices. Gaelic was not used as a written language in period Scotland as often as other languages, chiefly Latin; we have few surviving Gaelic documents that include names. As a result, the bulk of our Gaelic name sources are Irish. Though there were certainly differences between the Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic naming pools, the languages were the same, and we believe that given names popular with Irish Gaels were probably also used by Scottish Gaels. You mentioned that you found at several names websites, including "20,000 names". Unfortunately, most names websites, like most baby-name books, aren't good sources for medieval re-creation. They are primarily written for the purpose of giving parents long lists of varied, attractive names to consider. The author is probably not interested in how old the name is or how it was spelled in the 12th century, if it existed at all; he's only interested in listing names. He will copy names from any useful source and might make up names to fill gaps in his lists. A name selected from such a book is probably not a medieval name; even if by chance it is, you need to check a more scholarly source to be sure. We also found at several websites, none of which gave any evidence that it was a medieval name. We have not found used as a given name in any Scottish culture for your period. The "20,000 Names" website defined as a Gaelic name meaning 'little dark one' [1]; accordingly, we believe that it is a late 20th century Anglicized form of the Gaelic name [2]. Here and throughout this letter, the slash represents an accent over the preceding letter. appears in early Ireland (prior to the 8th century); there are over two dozen Irish saints by this name [3]. Despite this, it never became common and does not seem to have been used at all in the later medieval period. We haven't found the name after 1061 [4]. We aren't surprised that we don't see in general use. We have observed that many sacred names, such as and , which are in common modern use, were not found at all in Gaelic for most of our period. The names of certain saints and religious figures were evidently considered too holy to be used by ordinary folk. Instead, the Gaels used compound given names like , which was used to mean "devotee of Ciara/n". A large number of given names like this one came into use around the 7th century and became quite popular. Later, around 1000, another popular compound form came into use; the name means "servant of Ciara/n". The change in spelling from to is required by Gaelic grammar; in this case, it shows possession, much as changing to does in English. We found the following dated forms of and : Mael Ciaran 1060 [5] Gilla Ciaran 1095 [5] Maelciaran 1249, 1263 [6] There is often spelling variation in the medieval Irish records, and there is irregular use of accents. You can see that these dated forms to not show the addition of to reflect possession. However, we believe the most typical spellings of the given names for the early end of your period would have been and , pronounced \MAL CHEE-@-rahn~\ and \GIL-l@ CHEE-@-rahn~\. The notation \CH\ represents the soft sound in German , \@\ is the sound of in or , and \n~\ is the sound of in French or Italian or the sound in Spanish . The \A\ in the first syllable was pronounced like the in . Gaelic spelling conventions changed around 1200 to more closely reflect pronunciation. For the later part of your period, we believe that the most typical spellings of the given names would have been and , pronounced much the same except that the first syllable of would have been nearer \MEL\ than \MAL\. Here the inserted after the indicates lenition, or a softening of the initial consonant sound required under certain circumstances by Gaelic grammar. It is sometimes also reflected in spelling for your period by placing a dot over the softened consonant; we represent that as [7]. We have no record of these given names in Scotland; however we do have examples of the byname , which is an Anglicized version of . Patronymics, or bynames identifying you as the child of your father, were used literally in period Gaelic, so it is virtually certain that someone recorded as had a father named . We find the following citations [8]: Gillepatrick McKerin or Makerin, temp. Malcolm IV (c. 1150) M'Kerin, 1452 John Makilkeranne, 1506 Makcherane, 1519 John Makgilcharane, 1563 The early citations may represent rather than . Though most of these citations are later than your period, we believe that either name would be appropriate throughout your period. If neither name appeals to you, you may find alternatives in the following article: A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Names http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.shtml Your byname is an excellent choice; we will recommend slightly different spellings. The given name was one of the twenty most popular men's names in Early Ireland, and in the later form it seems to have remained in use [9]. Patronymics based on this name are recorded in Scotland throughout your period. Examples appear in various spellings in Latin documents [10]: Malcolm MacEwen, 1174 Patrick McEwyn, 1331 Johannes M'Eogan, 1355 These examples are all from Latin documents, so the spellings represent a scribe's best attempt at rendering a Gaelic name into a form which seemed more appropriate for a Latin record. We believe that the most typical Gaelic spelling would be for the early part of your period and for the later part; either was pronounced \mahk EHW-ghahn~\. Here \EHW\ represents the diphthong you get when you say as though you had a speech impediment and get , and then stop before you get to the . The symbol \gh\ represents voiced \kh\. This sound is made by bringing the tongue into the position for the \k\ sound as in while pronouncing a strong, rasping \h\ and vibrating your vocal chords. This sound would have been clearly pronounced at the early end of your period but would have gradually softened over time; it may have been entirely gone by the end of your period, making the pronunciation nearer \EHW-ahn~\. In summary, or is a fine name for a Gaelic-speaking man living in Scotland between 1100 and roughly 1200. From around 1200 to 1350, we'd expect either name to be just as appropriate, but more likely spelled and . 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 were provided by Arval Benicoeur, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Juliana de Luna, Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek, and Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 13 April 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: [1] "20,000 Names" (WWW: Loor Publications), s.n. Cerin, accessed 13 April 2001. http://www.20000-names.com/no_frames/boy_gaelic_names.htm [2] is derived from the Gaelic word 'dark, black' and the common Gaelic diminutive ending <-a/n>. It could certainly be glossed as 'little dark one'. The misspelling would not reflect in either medieval or modern Gaelic; it may have arisen from a confusion with the fictional placename coined by J.R.R. Tolkein. [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Ciara/n. [4] Even before 1061, we believe that the name was not in common use. We have three citations from the Irish annals, dated 919, 951 and 1061; the first two are names of bishops, and the third is a "wise man" or hermit. It is possible that all three men took the name as a sign of their devotion to one of the saints of that name. M919.2 Ciaran, epscop Tolain [11] M951.1 Ciaran ua Gabhla, espucc Cluana Fe_rta Bre/nainn [11] U1061.1 Ciaran sui ecnaidh Erenn [5] [5] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997) U1060.5, U1090.5 http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/ [6] Cournane, Mavis, Vibeke Dijkman, and Ivonne Tummers, "Annals of Connacht" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997) 1249.16, 1263.11 http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100011 [7] 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. [8] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Macilheran, Mackerron. [9] O/ Corra/in and Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Eo/gan. [10] Black, s.n. Macewan. [11] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters, vol. 2", six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98), entries M903-M1171. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005B - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 10 Dec 2002, Arval: Added the examples in note [4] and added note [11].