[ANSTHRLD] Irish name

[Melissa Barton]

> I have a client who wants the name Jason Drysdale, for the late 13th
> century,
> an Irish conscript in the English army. Good news, I haven't found a
> name conflict.? Bad news, I haven't found support for the name.
>
> My assumption is that this would be an Anglicized Irish name. Drysdale
> seems to
> be Scottish. Jason doesn't appear in any of the Anglicized name rolls I've
> found.
>

Black's "Surnames of Scotland" gives <Dryfesdale> in 1499 as the earliest
known citation of the surname. The same citation is in Reaney and Wilson,
<Gawine Dryfesdale> in 1499. The next citation with a different spelling is
<Thomas Dryisdaill> in 1619, so <Dryfesdale> seems to be the preferred
spelling in SCA period (it's based on the river Dryfe, but pronounced
/Drysdale/). That puts the surname as very late 15th century at the
earliest.

I am not finding any evidence of it as an Irish name, and that seems
extremely unlikely, since Dryfesdale is in Scotland. I don't believe Jason
was ever Gaelicized in order to be Anglicized, and it may not be a name in
Ireland in SCA period in any form.

<Jason Dryfesdale> might be appropriate for a 16th century Scot (if you can
find documentation of <Jason> in Scots names--St. Gabriel isn't turning up
any examples for me and it's too common a modern name for my googlefu;
<Jason MacPherson> was registered in May 1994 via Ansteorra, might be good
to look up if anyone has access to ILoI 11/93), but 13th century Irish seems
extremely unlikely on both counts.

What I generally do in these cases is find out whether the client is more
attached to the time and place (in which case they will likely need to pick
a different name) or the name itself (in which case it can likely be
submitted as a 16th century Scottish name, but the client can always
continue playing whatever persona they prefer). YMMV. :-)

-Leonor Ruiz
Bonwicke