ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3369 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3369 ************************************ 31 May 2010 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about a name for a woman living on the Isle of Skye between 500 and 900. You asked about names that sound like , the name , or a name based on and such as , or . You mentioned that your father would have been a Pict or Gael named or , while your mother was a Welsh woman named or . Here is the information we have found. First, we'd like to apologize for the time this letter has taken; we hope the information is still of use to you. Unfortunately, we have to warn you at the outset that while we can give you general information about naming practices in your desired period and location, we do not at this time have the resources to give specific details of the names you're interested in. For most of your period, Scotland had no national cohesion, but was rather a collection of territories belonging to tribal cultures, chiefly the Picts (most of mainland Scotland, especially the northeast) and the Gaels (the western isles and southwest), often identified with the Da/l Riata tribe in northeast Ireland [1]. (Here and throughout this letter, a slash represents an acute accent over the preceding letter.) The Isle of Skye, in the western Hebrides, is generally recognized as being a part of Da/l Riata, rather than one of the Pictish kingdoms, so your culture would most likely be Gaelic rather than Pictish [2]. The language spoken by the Gaels in Scotland was basically the same as that spoken in Ireland at the same period. The earliest surviving written form of Irish dates from around the 4th century and is written on stone in the alphabet called "Ogham." When this writing tradition developed, the Irish language was very different from the medieval form -- about as different as Latin is from French. This stage of the language is variously called "Primitive Irish," "Ogham Irish," or "Oghamic Irish." This writing system continued in active use into the 7th century, and while it was in active use, its users tended to write a conservative form of the language corresponding to what was spoken when the system was developed. The spoken language, however, was undergoing considerable change. When a new writing system using Roman letters was developed in the 6th century, its users broke with tradition and wrote a language much closer to what was actually being spoken. This stage of the language, as recorded from the late 7th century to the mid-10th century the language, is called Old Irish. You mentioned that you wanted your name to reflect a Pict or Gael father and a Welsh mother; we don't believe this is plausible. Although it is very common in the Society to try to indicate mixed parentage in one's name, it simply wasn't done in period. In the rare cases when two people from different cultures married, as in marriages of political alliance, their children were named according to the naming practices of the place where they lived. Though Gaelic, Pictish, and Welsh are all considered "Celtic languages" they developed quite differently [3]. A name that was half in Welsh or Pictish and half in Gaelic would not be compatible with the naming practices of either culture. You mentioned finding the names and for early British women and wondered whether a name constructed of those elements, such as were possible. We're sorry to say that it's not, for several reasons. is the standard modern form of the name of a woman who lived in 7th-century Wales. Our best guess as to what the name would have looked like in Old Welsh is [5]. is a name from a Latin inscription found before the 4th century, which we can recognize by its elements as belonging to a British woman. Our best guess as to what it might have looked like in the Brythonic precursor to Old Welsh is [6]. Although many British names are dithematic, or composed of two meaningful parts, it's not a "one from Column A..." situation; you can't just stick any two elements together and arrive at a plausible name. Even if we were certain that and are forms comprehensible to a single culture (and we're not), we don't have enough evidence to suppose that either or would be plausible women's names. You identified your father's name as ; these elements are a good choice for a man in your period, but the spelling is not [7]. This particular spelling is close to an Irish spelling after about 1200 or so, . we would expect or in the Old Irish period. Something like is closer for the Oghamic period [6, 8]. His daughter would likely appear with the byname or 'daughter of Oinogusos' in Ogham inscriptions and or 'daughter of O/engus (A/engus)' in Old Irish. The change from to is required by Gaelic grammar to put the name in the genitive or possessive form, like changing to . We do not believe that combining these bynames with a Brythonic given name like is plausible. You also mentioned that your parents changed their names upon conversion to Christianity. Though this practice was common in some cultures, it does not seem to have been so in the early medieval British Isles. We have noted examples from the Irish annals of people taking a devotional name on entering religious life, but we have not seen any such renaming of people who accepted Christianity but otherwise went on with their lives as before. Considering how early in the history of the church your period lies, it's important to note that most of the saints venerated by the early Irish church were native Gaels, and retained their native Gaelic names. It's more likely that your father knew about Saint Ciara/n (born ca. 375) than a saint venerated predominantly in Rome and continental Europe. There was actually a Saint O/engus (feast day March 11) who was born in the mid-8th century [12]. If you're interested in researching early church practices, you might enjoy this book: Hughes, Kathleen, _The Church in Early Irish Society_ (London, 1966). 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 Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek, Bronwyn ferch Gwyn ap Rhys, Leonor Ruiz de Lison, Brian Dorcha ua Connail, Maria Abramsdottir, Eirik Halfdanarson, Ursula Georges, and Domhnall na Moicheirghe. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont, Gunnvor silfraharr, & Aryanhwy merch Catmael May 31, 2010 References: [1] Foster, Sally M., _Picts, Gaels, and Scots_ (New York: Sterling Publishing Co. Inc., 2004). [2] "Da/l Riata" (WWW:wikipedia.org, 3 October 2008). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A1l_Riata [3] "Celtic languages" (WWW:wikipedia.org, 3 October 2008). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_languages [4] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "A Consideration of Pictish Names" (Y Camamseriad, Issue 4, Summer 1996, pp.29-56; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/pictnames/ [5] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Names of Women of the Brythonic North in the 5-7th Centuries", (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 2003). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/brythonic/ [6] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "The First Thousand Years of British Names", (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/british1000/ [7] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. O/engus-A/engus, Domnall. [8] The 5th century ancestor of the name might have been or , or possibly or , perhaps pronounced \OI-n@-GOOS-ohs\ or \EY-n@-GOOS-ohs\, where \EY\ rhymes with . The second element of developed from an element that appears in other names in Ogham inscriptions, e.g. [9]; but we do not have similar examples of the first element. The most archaic-looking example of the name that we've found is [9]. There is a theory this first element is identical to the word for the number "one" [10]. If we accept this theory and follow McManus' discussion of Oghamic forms of the initial diphthong [9], then since the composition vowel of the prototheme cannot be palatalizing (given the resulting pronunciation), we can construct possible 5th century forms of the name starting with . If we take other discussions of historical phonology as our starting point, we can postulate the spellings [11]. [9] McManus, Damian, _A Guide to Ogam_ (Maynooth: An Sagart, 1991), pp.104, 107, 121, and chapter 6 for bynames. [10] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983). [11] Lewis, Henry, and Holger Pedersen, _A Concise Comparative Celtic Grammar_ (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1989). [12] Flanagan, Laurence, _A Chronicle of Irish Saints_ (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1990).