ANSTHRLD - Re: ANSTHRLD - Scots Gælic Assistance

Timothy A. McDaniel tmcd at crl.com
Mon Apr 19 13:25:20 PDT 1999


Thanks for the information, Gilla Onomastica.

As uI understand it, Gilla (and similar names: there are two
other prefixes that can be used, but I forget them at the moment)
was used because (apparently) saints' names were too holy to be
used for normal people in Irish.  I believe that this pattern
broke down in Englished contexts (since the English were certainly
using saints' names) and late in period (perhaps the Council of
Trent got thru to Ireland?).

So the modern stereotypes of Irish people named Patrick, Michael,
Mary, et cetera, doesn't fit the great majority of period use.

Daniel de Lincolia
- -- 
Tim McDaniel.   Reply to tmcd at crl.com;
    if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com is my work account.
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