ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3277 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3277 ************************************ 12 Apr 2007 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if 'Diarmuid the musical' is an authentic name for a Scottish Gaelic man living in the 13th century. Here is what we have found. is a variant of the name . [2,10] was one of the most popular names in early Ireland, probably because of the legendary hero of that name. [1] It was certainly still popular in Ireland in the 13th century; we find several examples of the name from Irish Gaelic records. [2] The variant spelling with the dates to at least the Early Irish period (c. 700-c. 1200), and both remained in use, though the spelling was more typical. [10] We have less evidence for the name in Scotland. This could be a factor of the small amount of Gaelic name examples we have from Scotland, or it could actually indicate that the name was less popular in Scotland than in Ireland. We have an example of in a genealogy written in 1467; however, the name is over 20 generations removed, so even if the example is genuine, it's quite a bit earlier than your period. [3,4] We have more examples of byname forms. Gaelic-speakers were generally known by patronymics, or bynames based on their father's given name, and these names were used literally: a man known as actually had a father named . [5] We find the following examples of patronymics which appear to be based on ; note that these examples were recorded in Latin and Scots records, not in Gaelic (Scots is a language closely related to English): [4] Nemeas Mactarmayt, 1427 John Makeyrmit, 1502 Jhone Makhermyk, 1529 Jhone McChormeit, 1533 As you can see, these names don't look very much like . Gaelic names in Latin and Scots documents are frequently rendered phonetically, so the spelling reflects what the writer thought the name sounded like. Gaelic bynames frequently show a softening of certain consonant sounds, called lenition, which can lead a non-Gaelic speaker to record a Gaelic byname like as , because that's how it sounds to them. [6] (Here the lenition is reflected by inserting the letter after the initial consonant.) You'll note by the dates that these examples are all well after your period, so it appears that or may not have been used in your period in Scotland. It's possible that it was, and we just have no examples, but if your period is of paramount importance to you, is much more likely in Ireland than in Scotland. Based on our evidence, we can't recommend or for a man's name in Scotland before the late 14th century or so, but it is possible the name was used earlier. Either form is a fine choice for an Irish Gaelic man in your period, however. In your period we believe both and were pronounced very roughly \DJEE@r-m@dj\, where \@\ is the sound of in or . appears to be an error for the phrase or . This phrase, meaning "great music", is used modernly for "classic" bagpipe music, as opposed to the "little music", which is played by bagpipe bands. [7] Because we this phrase doesn't have the meaning you desire, and we have no rason to think that "great music" is a plausible byname, we recommend that you don't use it as your byname. Additionally, it's not clear whether any word meaning "musical" would be an appropriate byname. Descriptive bynames, including ones indicating an occupation, were quite rare in Scottish Gaelic in our period. Ones that were used tended to be fairly straightforward, describing physical characteristics, like "big" and "black". [8] We've found only two music related bynames in Gaelic. The first is "harper", found in Irish Gaelic in reference to a man who died 630-634. [2] We have no example outside of this single early instance, so without evidence for it in your period or in Scotland, this choice would not be good re-creation. The other byname that we found is represented in the Scots name or , found in 1434 and 1435. [9] We are not entirely sure what the underlying Gaelic byname is here, but we believe that a plausible guess is 'a harp' [11], where the slash represents an acute accent over the previous letter. Based on this, we can recommend as a plausible Scottish Gaelic man's name for the 15th century; it's less clear whether this name authentic for the 13th century, and whether the spellings were used in Scotland. If you are most interested in keeping your persona in the 13th century, then as we noted above you might want to consider placing your persona in Ireland instead of Scotland. In both Ireland and the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland in the 13th century, the most common type of byname is the patronymic byname, one which indicates the bearer's father's given name. If you'd like to pick a name for your father, we recommend the following article: "Scottish Gaelic Given Names" http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven/ More information about each of the names listed here can often be found in source [2]. Source [5] gives information on how to form patronymic bynames. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek, Cobhlaith Mhuimhneach, Mari neyn Brian, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 12 April 2007 -- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Diarmait. The authors note, "Despite the many suggestions that have been made, we can attach no definite meaning to this old name which is one of the twenty or so most popular names in early Ireland." [2] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2006). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/ [3] Skene, William F., "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 1. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, with a Translation,", pp 50-62, and "Genealogies of the Highland Clans, Extracted from Ancient Gaelic MSS.: 2. Gaelic MS. Written circa A.D. 1450, continued," pp. 357-60, _Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis Consisting of Original Papers and Documents Relating to the History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, ed. The Iona Club (Edinburgh: Thomas G. Stevenson, 1847), folio 1, rectum, column C. [4] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Macdairmid, Dermid. Black notes that the Latin is given as the name of the faithful attendant of Saint Columba at his monastery on Iona by his biographer, Adamnan. The biography was written circa 700, and this was likely Irish as Columba was. [5] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "Quick and Easy Gaelic Names (3rd Edition)" (WWW: Privately published, 22 Jun 2001) http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ [6] If you'd like to know more about how lenition works, we recommend this article: "The Spelling of Lenited Consonants in Gaelic" http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotlang/lenition.shtml [7] "Ceol Mor - The great music of the pipe" (WWW: Fortunecity.co.uk, no date) http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/gaidhlig/page3d.html [8] This is in keeping with the types of bynames found in [2]. [9] Black, op. cit., s.n. Clarsair. [10] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.n. Di/armait. [11] Dinneen, Patrick S. _Foclo/ir Gaedhilge agus Be/arla_ (Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1979 [1927]).