ÆTHELMEARC COLLEGE OF HERALDS - commentary archive
Letter of Intent #67
Aryanhwy merch Catmael

1. Aengus MacBain - Well, an <Angus MacBain> was registered 12/95 via the East; I'm not sure if this is the same fellow or not. He had a badge registered 09/00 via AEthelmearc, so it may very well be.

2. Æthelmearc, Kingdom of? Acceptance of transfer of heraldic title - The title was registered 05/81 via the East.

3. Aine ingen uí Mac Aonghus - <Áine> is found 10 times between 1169 and 1468 in Mari's index of names found in the Irish Annals (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/Aine.shtml). <Mac Aonghus> does not appear as a given name in O'Corrain and Maguire, though <Aonghus> does, as a later form of <Áengus> or <Óengus>. Without evidence that <Mac Aonghus>, or <Mac Áengus> or <Mac Óengus>, is a given name, this should be changed to <Áengus> or <Óengus>; I recommend these spellings rather than <Aonghus>, as she is using early spellings of <ingen uí>. ingen uí doesn't mean 'daughter of.' <ingen> means 'daughter', and <uí> is the genitive of <Ó> 'male descendant'. <Mac Aonghus>, as a byname, is an incorrect spelling of <mac Aonghuis>, 'son of Aonghus.' The feminine form is <inghean Aonghuis> (later) and <ingen Áengusa> or <ingen Óengusa> (earlier). This is if her father's name actually is <Aonghus>. If she wants to indicate membership in the clan, then she wants <ingen uí> (early) or <inghean uí> (late). The genitives of the names are found in Tangwystyl's "100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland" (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100/).

To sum up:

Áine ingen Áengusa/Óengusa - early period literal patronymic byname
Áine ingen uí Áengusa/Óengusa - early period clan style byname
Áine inghean Aonghuis - late period literal patronymic byname
Áine inghean uí Aonghuis - late period literal clan style byname.

The primary charge looks at first viewing to be a dragon's head, not a horse's head; is it more distinctly horseish on the large emblazon?

4. Aurenca Mouly - Lovely name, lovely arms!

5. Bataar Sogdo - The term for 'knight' in Mongol on the list of alternate titles is <Bahadur>, not <Bataar>. I could not find either element in any of the Mongolian sources in the Medieval Names Archive. Unfortunately, the documentation on the LoI is not sufficient; the 12th C citation of <Bataar> is not any good unless it specifically shows its use as a name. The byname is insufficiently documented because there is no reason to think that <Sogdo> or <sogtuu> is medieval or that 'intoxicated' is a reasonable Mongolian byname. This must be returned for further work, but I do recommend that the client (or his consulting herald) contact the Trimaris heralds list, as there are a number of people doing active research in Mongolian names there, and I'm sure they'd be happy to share their resources.

7. Hrefna in heppna þorgímsdóttir - That should be a capital thorn, not a lower case thorn, in the byname, e.g.: Þorgímsdóttir. Her previous name was registered 09/96 via the East.

8. Máel Coluim map Vipogwench - The chief has far too many rayons; this must be redrawn with perhaps 6 at most. The name is impossible; it combines Brythonic (P-Celtic), Pictish (Q-Celtic), and Early Medieval Irish (Q- Celtic) in the same name, and Brythonic and Pictish in the same name phrase. The latter violates RfS III.1.a Linguistic Consistency. There is also a temporal disparity of around 400 years.

The little problem is that <map>, as stated in the article cited on the LoI, is Brythonic, not Pictish. The standard constructions for names are (quoted from the article):

# {given name} mac {father's name}
# {given name} filius {father's name}

I couldn't find anything like <Vipogwench> in Tangwystyl's article, nor a precursor form of <Máel Coluim>. Since <Máel Coluim> is a devotional name built in reference to S. Colum, I also looked to see if any earlier form of <Colum> showed up in the article; I did not find any. I cannot offer any suggestions to change this name so that it is registerable.

-Aryanhwy