[ANSTHRLD] Name Documentation Request

[Kathleen O'Brien]

>>Kenah Campbell
>>Kenna Campbell
>>Ceana Campbell
>
>Please be aware that Kenna is a man's name.


I haven't been following this thread carefully (buried in testing here at
work), so I don't know if you're looking for a man's given name or a
woman's given name.


Again, the info below specifically addresses authenticity not
registerability (which is a whole different issue).


>Woulfe, Irish Names and Surnames, page 466 header O Cionaodha gives O Kenna
>from the time of Elizabeth I.
>Kenna can be presumed from this form.  Page 331 header
>Mac Cionaodha gives M'Kinna and M'Kena from the time of
>Elizabeth I.  From these we get Kinna and Kena as
>masculine names.

Not quite.  Kinna & Kena are Anglicized forms of a genitive spelling.  To
use a name as a given name, you need to pull it from the nominative form.

One of the best examples I can think of to illustrate this situation is the
Gaelic name Conn:

nominative form: Conn
	i.e. Conn mac Domhnaill
	(Anglicized form would be something like Conn)

genitive form: Cuinn
	i.e. Domhnall mac Cuinn
	(Anglicized form would be something like M'Quin)

So the nominative & genitive forms of this name yield rather different
Anglicized forms.

The Anglicized forms of bynames in Woulfe can give a clue to what the
Anglicized given names would be, _if_ the nominative and the genitive forms
happen to be similar.


Here's the info specific to this name:

<Cionaodha> is one of the genitive forms.  The nominative forms (which are
used in given names) don't have the 'a' on the end (among other spelling
changes).

So, an Anglicized form of <Cionaedh> (the Anglicized modern form is
Kenneth) wouldn't have the 'a'.  I'm not sure what forms they would take.

Here's some examples from Four Masters (C) - again written in 1632-1636:

[nominative:]
M1173.4   Cionaedh Ua Ron{a/}in Epscop Glinne Da Locha
M1260.1   Cionaoth Ua Birn pri{o/}ir Cille Moire

[genitive:]
M1318.8   Giolla an Choimhdheadh mac Cionaedha U{i/} Ghormghaile


Mari