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© 2006 by Heather Rose Jones, all rights reserved
Information about personal names in the Isle of Man is extremely sparse before the Early Modern period, and what we know comes from occasional references to Manx individuals in the historic chronicles or by neighboring cultures, and from a variety of commemorative stone inscriptions. These inscriptions reflect the cultural diversity of the medieval Manx people and the succession of cultures that dominated the island: Irish Ogham inscriptions, Norse Runes, and the Roman alphabet. The single most comprehensive source on these that I've found is Manx Crosses: or The Inscribed and Sculptured Monuments of the Isle of Man from about the End of the Fifth to the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century by P.M.C. Kermode (London: Bemrose & Sons Ltd., 1907). The date of this publication makes me wish for something a little more recent, as there has been a lot of progress in dating and analyizing inscriptions since then -- but most more recent work tends to be commentaries on works such as this, rather than new, comprehensive works, and the time I had to devote to this article did not allow for tracking down this newer material, for which I hope the reader will forgive me. While specific dates may have been adjusted by more recent scholarship, the dates given here are probably generally correct, and the actual readings of the inscriptions are unlikely to have changed much. The Ogham and Runic inscriptions are given only in transcription (to the Roman alphabet), following Kermode.
The oldest inscriptions are in Ogham letters and date to the period when Man was dominated by Gaelic culture. Most are from the 5-6th centuries, according to Kermode, but this is a field where there has been a lot of revision of opinion. The names are essentially identical to those found in Ogham inscriptions in Ireland at the same period.
There are only three early inscriptions in Latin letters. Kermode doesn't suggest a date for them, but the general form places them somewhere in the second half of the first millenium, and they are all Christian in character, narrowing the date further. Only two of the three include personal names:
There is a much larger body of surviving runic inscriptions, and the simple fact that they use runes places them in the period when Norse culture predominated on the island. After much detailed discussion, Kermode concludes that the runic inscriptions date primarily to the 11th century. Other, more recent, scholarship broadens that to the 10-12th century. The inscriptions are full of personal names, being primarily memorial inscriptions.
Linguistically the name elements are a mixture of Gaelic, Norse, and even the occasional Old English element, all mixed together in the same name or same family. Whatever the name's origins, it is recorded here in a somewhat idiosyncratic Norse-based spelling, as we would expect for someone writing with runes. So, for example, the name MAIL BRIKTI has its origins in the Gaelic name Mael Brigde, but it is written the way a Norse speaker would have interpreted the sounds.
I've used Kermode's reference numbers in the following transcriptions, and note that the names often appear in a possessive or other grammatical form, and might need to be adjusted, depending on how you plan to use them in a name.
Note: due to compatibility issues with representing the "thorn" symbol in html, I have transcribed it here simply as "th". All examples of "th" in the transcriptions of the runes should be understood as representing a thorn symbol. Similarly, the use of "dh" in the transcriptions stands for the letter "edh".
Only the portions of the inscriptions involving personal names are included here. Ellipses indicate parts of the inscription that have been omitted (not parts that are missing in the original inscription).
1. BLAGKMON
2. UFAIK ... KAUTR ... SUNR BIARNAR FRA KULI
3. MAIL BRIKTI SUNR ATHKANS SMITH ... KAUT
5. OULAIBR LIUTULBSUNR ... ULB
6. OSRUTHR
9. THURSTAIN ... UFAAK SUN KRINAIS
11. TRUIAN SURTUFKALS ... ATHMIUL KUNU SINA
13. KRIM ... RUMUN
14. KRIMS INS SUARTA
15. THURUALTR
16. SONTULF HIN SUARTI ... ARINBIAURK KUINU SINA
Two individuals: Sandulf the black and Arinbjörg his wife (the latter in the accusative case).
17. MAL LUMKUN ... MAL MURU FUSTRA SINE TOTIR TUFKALS ... ATHISL
18. JUALFIR SUNR THURULFS HINS RAUTHA ... FRITHU MUTHUR SINO
20. THURLIBR NHAKI ... FIAK HUN SIN ... HABRS
21. UTR ... FROKA
22. IN ROSKITIL
23. THURBIAURN
24. ASRITHI KUNU SINA TUTUR UTS
25. MURKIALU ... UKIFAT ... RA{TH}IFRIT ... THURITH
26 & 27 IUAN BRIST
The above gives a notion of how the whole names are put together. As a summary of the name patterns (other than single given names) and editing out interpolated references (e.g., "X [his wife] Y's daughter") we find the following.
Type 1: Given name + Byname
Type 1A: Adjectives with definite article (nominative (H)IN, genitive (H)INS; the adjective also needs to be in the appropriate form).
KRIMS INS SUARTA Grim the black
SONTULF HIN SUARTI Sandulf the black
and the same in a patronym
THURULFS HINS RAUTHA [of] Thorolf the Red
Type 1B: Occupations, with no definite article (appearing in the same grammatical case as the name they're associated with).
IUAN BRIST John priest
and the same in a patronym
ATHKANS SMITH [of] Athakan the smith
Type 2: Given name + Patronym
Type 2A: With the patronymic marker (nominative SUNR "son" or TOTIR "daughter") before the father's name. The father's entire name needs to be in the genitive case.
UFAAK SUN KRINAIS Ofeig, son of Crina
TRUIAN SURTUFKALS Druian, son of Dugald
MAL MURU TOTIR TUFKALS Mal-Mura daughter of Dugald
ASRITHI TUTUR UTS Asridh daughter of Odd
Type 2B: With the patronymic marker after the father's name. When followed by SUNR, the genitive "-S" on the father's name seems to be omitted, but this would probably not be done if followed by TOTIR.
OULAIBR LIUTULBSUNR Olaf Liotulfson
Type 3: Given name + Patronym with byname (FRA "from, of" expects the following word to be in the dative)
KAUTR SUNR BIARNAR FRA KULI Gaut Bjornson from Cooley
MAIL BRIKTI SUNR ATHKANS SMITH Mael Brigde, son of Athakan the smith
JUALFIR SUNR THURULFS HINS RAUTHA Joalf son of Thorolf the Red
Kermode also supplies a glossary of the name elements and notes on their grammatical form, which I've cribbed from as follows (with my own additions of likely nominative and genitive forms -- the ones most useful in forming personal names). Norse case information is from E.H. Lind Norsk-Islandsk Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fran Medeltiden (Uppsala: Lundequistska Bokhandeln, 1915), E.V. Gordon An Introduction to Old Norse (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1974), and Alan Bower A Synopsis of Old Icelandic Morphology (Traverse City: Stonehill Publishing Co., 1994), but my suggestions have attempted to follow the sound and spelling rules in the runic material rather than using "standard" forms, and any errors in interpretation here are entirely my own. The pattern for the glossary entries is as follows.
Runic form
I have summarized the relevant grammatical forms in a table for each section, with my reconstructions marked with an asterisk.
ATHAKANS
ATHISL
BIARNAR
FIAK
FROKA
HABRS
IUALFIR
IUAN
KAUTR, KAUT
KRIM
KRINAIS
LIUTULBS
MAIL BRIKTI
MAL LUMKUN
NHAKI
OULAIBR
OSRUTHR
RATHIFRIT
RUMUN
SONTULF
THURBIAURN
THURLIBR
THURULFS
THURSTAIN
THURUALTR
TRUIAN
TUFKALS
UFAIK, UFAAK
UKIFAT
ULB, ULF
UTR
Note: Forms in the tables that are prefixed by an asterisk (*) are reconstructions. Forms without the asterisk are taken directly from the inscriptions.
NOMINATIVE | GENITIVE |
*ATHAKAN | ATHAKANS |
ATHISL | *ATHISL |
*BIAURN | BIARNAR |
FIAK | *FIAKS |
*FROKI | FROKA |
*HABR | HABRS |
IUALFIR | *IUALFS |
IUAN | *IUANS |
KAUT(R) | *KAUTS |
KRIM, *KRIMR | KRIMS |
*KRINAI | KRINAIS |
*LIUTULBR | LIUTULBS |
MAIL BRIKTI | *MAIL BRIKTA |
MAL LUMKUN | *MAL LUNKUNA |
NHAKI | *NHAKA |
OULAIBR | *OULAIBS |
OSRUTHR | *OSRUTHS |
RATHIFRIT | see next |
*RATHIFRITR | *RATHIFRITAR |
*RUMUNR | *RUMUNAR |
SONTULF | see next |
*SONTULFR | *SONTULFS |
THURBIAURN | *THURBIARNAR |
THURLIBR | *THURLIBS |
*THURULFR | THURULFS |
THURSTAIN | *THURSTAINS |
THURUALTR | *THURUALTS |
TRUIAN | *TRUIANS |
*TUFKAL | TUFKALS |
*UFAIKR | *UFAIKS |
*UFAAKR | *UFAAKS |
UKIFAT | *UKIFATS |
*ULFR, ULBR | ULFS, *ULBS |
UTR | UTS |
ARINBIAURK
ASRITHI
ATHMIUL
FRITHU
MAL MURU
MURKIALU
THURITH
NOMINATIVE | GENITIVE |
*ARINBIAURK | *ARINBIARKAR |
*ASRITHR | *ASRITHAR |
*ATHMIUL | no guesses |
*FRITHA | *FRITHU |
*MAL MURA | *MAL MURU |
*MURKIAL(A) | *MURKIALU |
THURITH | see next |
*THURITHR | *THURITHAR |
RAUTHA
SUARTA
NOMINATIVE | GENITIVE | |
MASC. | *(H)IN RAUTHI | HINS RAUTHA |
FEM. | *(H)IN RAUTHA | *(H)INNA RAUTHU |
MASC. | HIN SUARTI | INS SUARTA |
FEM. | *(H)IN SUARTA | *(H)INNA SUARTU |
BRIST
SMITH
(Only masculine forms are given as it is unlikelythat women would have used these bynames -- particularly "priest".)
NOMINATIVE | GENITIVE |
BRIST | *BRISTS |
*SMITHR | *SMITHAR |
see above | SMITH |
KULI
ROSKITIL
KURNATHAL
MAUN
(In use, the same form would be found for both men and women.)
FRA KULI |
*FRA ROSKITILI |
FRA KURNATHAL |
*FRA MAUN |
SUNR
TOTIR
KONA
FRA
HIN
Masc. | nom. | (H)IN SVARTI |
gen. | (H)INS SVARTA | |
Fem. | nom. | (H)IN SVARTA |
gen. | (H)INNAR SVARTU |
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