[antir-heralds] Name Doc: Duncan MacKinnon of Skye

[Ursula Georges]

> MacKinnon -
> 
> 
> 
> Academy St. Gabriel Report #1374 -- <MacKinnon> is a late-period
> Scots spelling of the Gaelic name <mac Fhionnghuine> "son of
> Fionnghuine"
> 
> 
> 
> A late 15th century Lowland woman might have been called <Katring
> MacKinnon>

I'd suggest trying to construct <MacKinnon> using the dated spellings in 
Black.  He has <Makkynnon> in 1536; you'd need to justify an I/Y switch, 
and Mac for Mak.

> of Skye - This addition was necessary to clear a conflict with an
> already-registered Duncan MacKinnon.  I have no idea how to document
> the spelling of the placename.

Academy Report 2196 discusses <Skye>:

http://www.s-gabriel.org/2196

There are some earlier spellings of the placename, but a couple of the 
footnotes are probably most relevant to your case:

> [8]     The history of land holding and lordship in Skye was such that 
> Gaels who held land in Skye either held only a part of Skye or else held 
> Skye and a lot more besides.  Because locative bynames of Gaels as recorded 
> in Scots and Latin documents strongly corresponded with ownership, and 
> because people throughout Skye's history who have owned land on Skye have 
> owned either more or less than the whole island, we believe it is 
> _especially_ unlikely that anyone would be known as <of Skye>.
> 
> [9]     If you intended <Skye> as a surname, there are some 
> similar-looking, though unrelated, bynames found in Scotland.  We find 
> <Skea>, a name from the Orkney Islands, recorded as <Scay> in 1523, as 
> <Skay> in 1559, and as <Skaye> in 1562 (likely pronounced \SKAY\, rhyming 
> with <day>).  We also find the surname <Skene>, from Aberdeenshire, 
> recorded as <Skyne> in 1586 (likely pronounced either \SKEEN\ or \SKAYN\ 
> for your period).  Either of these names would be appropriate for a 
> Scots-speaker.  These spellings are slightly later than the period you 
> asked us about; if either name interests you, please write again.

Effrick has an article on clearing conflict in Scottish names which 
might be helpful here:

http://medievalscotland.org/names/sca/conflicthighland.shtml

Ursula Georges.