ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3361
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3361
************************************

From: Coblaith Mhuimhneach 
23 Oct 2008

23 October 2008


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You indicated you want to use <O/rlaith> as the given name of an Irish  
woman of the 13th century or later.  You gave us a list of possible  
bynames and asked us to evaluate their plausibility.  They included  
<Ard Rua> (which you indicated means 'tall red-haired'), <cara duinn  
Farraige> (which you indicated means 'of the sea'), <O'Ruairc>,  
<Caomhanach>, and <MacLochlainn>.  You specified you do not want to  
include the term <ingean> 'daughter' in your name.

Throughout this letter, a slash represents an acute accent on the  
letter it follows.

The phrase <cara duinn Farraige> does not fit any recorded pattern for  
an Irish Gaelic byname.  It also doesn't mean 'of the sea' or, in fact,  
make any sense at all as it is written.  The closest intelligible Early  
Medieval Irish phrase we could devise is <cara na fairrge duinne>,  
which would read something like 'friend of the dark sea'.  This is also  
not consistent with any known type of Irish Gaelic byname.

<O'Ruairc> and <MacLochlainn> are partially Anglicized versions of the  
Irish bynames <O/ Ruairc> and <mac Lachlainn>, which are appropriate  
for your period, but only for a man.  The feminine forms are <inghean  
Ui/ Ruaircc> and <inghean mhic Lachlainn>; however, they necessarily  
incorporate <inghean> and therefore don't meet your requirements.

<Ard> ('tall') appears in the Irish annals at least once, as the byname  
of a man who lived around the dawn of the 15th century.  Almost 80 men  
known by some form of <Ruad> ('red') are mentioned, with dates ranging  
from the 11th through the 16th century.  <Ruadh> is the correct form  
for your period. [1]  We consider either <O/rlaith Ard> or <O/rlaith  
Ruadh> to be a plausible choice.  We have, however, no evidence that  
the Irish Gaels ever "stacked" descriptives together to create  
compounds like <Ard Ruadh>.  Furthermore, the most obvious  
interpretation of the phrase <ard ruadh> is 'red(dish) height,  
red(dish) hill'.  There is at least one place by this name in Scotland.

<Caomha/nach> is found in the Irish annals as the descriptive byname of  
ten people, dated to the late 14th, the 15th, and the early 16th  
century.  One of the ten was a woman, who died in 1465. [1]  <O/rlaith  
Chaomha/nach> is therefore a reasonable choice.  (The change in  
spelling from <Caomha/nach> to <Chaomha/nach> reflects a change in  
pronunciation known as lenition that is required by Irish grammar.)

I 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, Bronwyn ferch  
Gwyn ap Rhys, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Mari neyn Brian, Adelaide de  
Beaumont, and Ursula Georges.


For the Academy,

Coblaith Mhuimhneach


------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
-----
References

[1]  Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW:  
Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2006).  
http://www.medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/