Gaelic nicknames

[Spacot]

I am writing a book on the parish of Alvie in the 18th century, consequently I am gathering all the information I can from old records, Unfortunately a lot of the records identify people by gaelic alias most of which I have managed to translate ---buie dow roy etc, but I am completely stumped by arfach does anyone out there have any sugestions. As I have quite a few puzzels, I shal be adding to this querie from time to time.

[Currie]

Hello Spacot,

All that jumps out at me from this 1815 dictionary is “Arfhaich”, a field of battle. Maybe that was his favourite topic of conversation. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ofs ... ch&f=false

Good luck with the book.

Alan

[Montrose Budie]

http://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/scottish doesn't help, I'm afraid.

mb

[Spacot]

Thanks for the idea Alan, initially I thought it a non starter as I have a lot of different families with the same nickname, but then I thought perhaps they were people who had featured in the 1715 rebellion, I will look into this angle, thanks again Lyn

[nelmit]

A wee google shows it as an adjective meaning destructive. If you scroll down the list it is near the bottom.

http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book ... nscription

Regards,
Annette

[Spacot]

Thanks Annette, that looks quite promising, it could be used for people who are clumsy, break things etc or people who are quick to anger and fight a lot, very helpful yhank you Lynn