Re[2]: [tied] Re: Asian migration to Scandinavia

At 12:33:49 PM on Sunday, September 14, 2008, Rick
McCallister wrote:

> From: Brian M. Scott <BMScott@...>

>> At 11:02:58 AM on Sunday, September 14, 2008, Andrew
>> Jarrette wrote:

>> [...]

>>> P.S. to Rick: what I do know about the McMillans (and I
>>> don't know why some spell it MacMillan, and whether they
>>> are related (cf. Harold MacMillan, former PM of Great
>>> Britain)

>> <MacMillan>, <Macmillan>, <McMillan>, <M'Millan>, etc.
>> are all the same name and can all appear in a single
>> family.

>>> is that their name is from <mac maolain> which means
>>> "son of the priest".

>> Not quite: English <Macmillan> actually represents two
>> Scots Gaelic names, <mac Mhaolain> and <mac Ghille
>> Mhaoil>. The first is 'son of Maolan'; <Maolan>
>> corresponds to Irish <Maolán> and is a diminutive of
>> <Maol> 'bald, tonsured', Old Irish <Máel> 'crop-headed,
>> shorn' (and by extension 'bald'), and the whole is 'son
>> of the bald or tonsured one'.

>> The second is 'son of Gille Maol'; <Gille Maol>
>> corresponds to Irish <Giolla Maol> 'bald or tonsured lad'
>> (OIr <gilla máel>>), making the whole 'son of the bald or
>> tonsured lad'. (Another interpretation is grammatically
>> possible but I think much less likely.)

>> Yes, it means "tonsured" but only monks and priests were
>> tonsured. And I imagine that of the 2, only priests had
>> the means to bring up children

'Tonsured' is a secondary meaning; the original sense is
'close-cropped, shorn', and by extension 'bald'. I don't
believe that baldness is a bar to bringing up children.

It is certainly possible that in some cases the original
reference is to a priest, but this is by no means necessary.

Brian