ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2566 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2566 ************************************ 21 Aug 2002 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us to research two questions: * Whether the Norse name was ever adopted into Gaelic and thus whether it was possible for a Scottish Gael to have had a name something like "Eirik son of Giolla Mhartainn"; and * In what times and places in medieval Europe the names and were both available and how they could have been combined in a single name. Here is what we have found. Before we start, we would like to apologize for the time it's taken us to answer your question. We have found no evidence of a Gaelic form of . It is not implausible: The Norse ruled large portions of Ireland and Scotland at times in our period, and many other Norse names were indeed adopted by Gaels; but was not in fact one of those names. We have found one use of the name in a Gaelic record: A Norseman named is mentioned in an Irish chronicle from 1103 as [1]. The slash in the name represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. This one mention of a foreigner in Ireland provides precious little support for speculating that the name was used by Gaels at all, let alone in Scotland; so we recommend against using this name in Gaelic. You may be interested in a couple similar-sounding Gaelic names. , pronounced \AIRK\, was common in early medieval Ireland. We don't have evidence of it in Scotland, but it is reasonable to believe that it was available there, too [2]. Two other Gaelic names, and , were used in medieval Scotland [3]. They were pronounced \AKH-ahn\ and \EH-rahrd\, respectively. \KH\ represents the sound raspy sound of the in the Scottish word . is a fine Gaelic name. This particular spelling is standard for Ireland after about 1200. The standard Scottish spelling in that period was . Earlier, the name was written . As we explained in earlier correspondence, it does literally mean "servant of [Saint] Martin" and was originally given to children as a way to honor the 4th century Hungarian St. Martin of Tours [4]; but in practical terms it was simply a man's given name. It was used in Scotland by 1223 [5]. Thus, "Eachann son of Gille Mhartainn" is a fine 13th century Scottish Gaelic name. It's much easier to combine some form of and in other cultures. appears in English records from the 11th century to the 13th, e.g 1204 and 1209, in Lancashire [6]. was common in England in this period [7], so (meaning "Eiric son of Martin") is a very reasonable 11th or 12th century English name, particularly in Danelaw, the eastern part of the country where Scandinavian influence was strongest. In the Latin records of the time, it would likely have appeared as . Another good possibility is late medieval or renaissance Iceland or Norway. The specific spelling occurs in 1343 in Norway and 1469 in Iceland. The similar was recorded in Iceland in 1499 [8, 9]. The name or first appeared in both Norway and Iceland around 1200 [9]. is a name for these countries in the 14th century or later. You had originally also asked our help designing arms, but you withdrew that part of your question after we discussed the problem of designing arms for a member of culture that didn't use heraldry. We want to assure you that we would still be happy to help you design authentic medieval arms, even if they don't match the culture of your name. Let us know if you're interested. 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 Adelaide de Beaumont, Raquel Buenaventura, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, and Mari neyn Bryan. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 21 Aug 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entry U1103.5. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/ [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100 [3] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. MacEachan, MacErard. witnessed a chater during the reign of William the Lion; his name in Gaelic was . Another Gael bearing this name lived in 1505, so the name remained in use to the end of our period among Scottish Gaels. Black has during the reign of Robert I; the underlying Gaelic name was probably . [4] Black s.n. Gillemartin. [5] Black s.n. Gilruth shows the Latinized 1223 representing the Gaelic name . [6] Fellows Jensen, Gillian, _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968), s.n. Eiri/kr. [7] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Martin. [8] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931), s.nn. Eiri/kr, Marteinn. [9] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed. _Norsk personnamnleksikon_, 2nd ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1995), s.nn. Martinus, Martin.