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Kairenn (Cairenn) appears to be a unique name, that of the mother of Njall of the Nine Hostages of Irish legend. It has been returned before now (Cairenn of CuaRuadh Keep, Aug 91). (Kairenn Suile Gairitecha, September, 1992, pg. 53)
Lord Crescent has noted that the only instance of Hiel in the Bible is the name of a man "cursed before the Lord"; he suggests that, for this reason, Hiel would never have actually been used in the Middle Ages. In fact, the names of "cursed" people in the Bible were often used by the non-cursed, even by saints; it's assumed that the name was perfectly innocent before its use by one wicked person. Judas, for instance, was used both by the betrayer of Christ and by one of the Apostles (John 14:22). There's also Ananias, the name of a man struck dead for lying to Peter (Acts 5:5) and of the disciple who restored Paul's sight (Acts 9:17). There are too many such examples for us to disallow a valid period name solely because of "guilt by association"; the name must be shown to be uniquely (or at least overwhelmingly) associated with its "cursed" holder. Lacking such evidence for Hiel, the name should be available for SCA use. (Abiel ben Hiel, March, 1993, pg. 7)
Without evidence that the courtesan Lalage of antiquity had a unique name, we must assume her name to be generally acceptable. (Lalage la Peregrina, June, 1993, pg. 9)
Dafyd ...doesn't appear to be a valid variant of the Welsh Dafydd; the two are pronounced quite differently. (Dafydd son of Donwald, August, 1992, pg. 18)
Briallen is the Welsh for "primrose", and does not seem to have been a given name in period; nor does it belong to a class of common nouns that were regularly used as names in period Welsh. (Briallen o Llanrwst, August, 1992, pg. 22)
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[Iestyn ap Cadfael ap Ianto ap Danno ap Richard ap Owen ap Rhys o'r Cwm] Lord Hund has noted the use on a Welsh gravestone of a similarly lengthy name (John ap Robert ap Porth ap Daffyd ap Gruffydd ap Daffyd Vaughan ap Blethyn ap Gruffydd ap Meredith ap Jerworth ap Llewellyn ap Jerom ap Heilin ap Cowryd ap Cadwan ap Alawgwa ap Cadell of Powys, born 1547). The gravestone is as much a legal "document" as a birth record. (Iestyn ap Cadfael ap Ianto ap Danno ap Richard ap Owen ap Rhys o'r Cwm, September, 1992, pg. 33)
[verth Evan] Apparently, verth is a rare but acceptable variant of the Welsh patronymic particle verch (ferch). However, it is in effect a period misspelling; and the submitter's own documentation gives verth Jevan as the consistent form of this byname [name registered]. (Eona verth Evan, November, 1992, pg. 2)
When used as a patronymic particle, the Welsh merch mutates to ferch. There are some early-period texts where the particle didn't mutate in its written form, but did in its spoken form --- i.e. written "merch" but still pronounced "ferch". We've changed the submitter's spelling, to better match the correct pronunciation; she may resubmit with merch if she wishes, but it seemed best that she do so with full knowledge of its orthoepic niceties. (Rhonwen ferch Alun, December, 1992, pg. 13)
[The name] was submitted as Caer Daibhidh, combining Welsh and Scots Gaelic in a single phrase. This isn't normally permitted, per Rule III.2.a, and has been the reason for the last three returns of their name. The submitters provided evidence (augmented by Lady Harpy) that the element caer- is found in many Scots placenames: e.g. Caerlaverock, Caerlanrig, Caer Ruther. However, in those cases caer- doesn't seem to be from Welsh; the prefix derives either from the Gaelic cathair or from the extinct Cumbric cair, and is only spelled Caer in its modern form, due to the Welsh influence.
It could be argued that, even if Caer were derived from the Gaelic cathair, the submitted name would still seem acceptable, given the cited examples. Most of those examples, though, are anglicized forms; and while an anglicized Caerdavid would be perfectly acceptable, the submitted Gaelic spelling of Daibhidh requires a plausible construction for that language. Not only must Daibhidh be put into the genitive case, but an unanglicized form of Caer must be used. The submission forms do not forbid grammatical corrections, so we've substituted the correct Gaelic spelling; the pronunciation is nearly unchanged from their submitted form. If they prefer the spelling Caer, they may resubmit Caerdavid or the fully Welsh Caer Ddafydd. (College of Cathair Dhaibhaidh, March, 1993, pg. 3)
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There was some question over whether Blodwen ...is a period given Name. Hanks & Hodges (Dictionary of First Names, p.43) unequivocally date it to the Middle Ages. However, Lady Harpy could find no period examples of the name's use in all her sources; she quotes the opinion of a professor in Medieval Welsh that Blodwen as a name dates from the 19th Century. I'd trust Lady Harpy's expertise in this area far more than that of Hanks & Hodges; but either I must declare Hanks & Hodges completely unreliable, even in their most authoritative statements (as we've done for Yonge), or else give the submitter the benefit of the doubt. Since Blodwen has already been accepted for Society use (LoAR of Sept 92), the latter seems the more generous course. (Blodwen ferch Margred, June, 1993, pg. 10)
The submitter has documented a pattern of use involving Gaelic names with the Welsh patronymic particle ap. It's reasonable to extend this exception to Rule III.2.a to the feminine equivalent ferch. (Mwynwenn ferch Maelsnectain, July, 1993, pg. 10)
[Household name Teulu Ffynnon Ddu] Lady Harpy has noted that the use of teulu ("family") with a toponymic household name does not fit Welsh name structure. However, teulu also means "warband" which makes the name more plausible. (Giovanni Fontananera, October, 1993, pg. 9)
Yiddish, from Eastern Europe, has not been shown to have enough period interaction with Irish to justify combining them in a name. (Deborah Fey O'Mora, August, 1993, pg. 9)
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