Sorley (given name)
Sorley and Somerled are masculine given names in the English language, Anglicizations of Scottish Gaelic Somhairle and Norse Sumarlidi.
Etymology
[edit]Sorley is an Anglicised form of Somhairle (modern Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈs̪o.ərˠlə]), a name mutual to both the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages, which means "summer warrior". The Gaelic name is a form of the English Somerled, and both names are ultimately derived from the Old Norse Old Norse Sumarliðr.[1] A variant form of Sumarliðr is Sumarliði.[2] A variant form of Somerled is Summerlad, a name altered by folk etymology, derived from the words "summer" and "lad".[3] Somhairle is sometimes Anglicised as Samuel,[4] although these two names are etymologically unrelated (the latter being ultimately of Hebrew origin).[5]
The Old Norse personal name likely originated as a byname, meaning "summer-traveller",[6] "summer-warrior",[7] in reference to a Viking,[8] or men who took to raiding during the summer months as opposed to full-time raiders.[9] An early occurrence of the term is sumarliða[10] (sumorlida, perhaps meaning "fleet"),[11] recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 871.[12] Another early occurrence of the term is Classi Somarlidiorum,[13] meaning "fleet of the sumarliðar",[14] which is recorded in the 12th-century Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, in an account of an attack on Buchan in the mid-10th century.[15] Possibly the earliest record of the personal name occurs in a grant of land in Nottinghamshire by Edgar the Peaceful in 958.[16] Several men with the name are recorded in early Icelandic sources, such as the 10th-century Hrappr Sumarliðason, and his son Sumarliði, Icelanders said to have been of Scottish and Hebridean ancestry.[17] The first historical personage in Orkney with the name was Sumarliði Sigurðsson, Earl of Orkney, eldest son of Sigurðr digri, Earl of Orkney (d. 1014).[18]
List of persons with the given name
[edit]Somerled
[edit]- Somerled (died 1164), Lord of Argyll, King of the Hebrides and Kintyre
Somhairle
[edit]- Somhairle Mac Domhnail, 17th-century Irish soldier
Sorley
[edit]- Sorley Boy MacDonnell, (died 1590), Scottish/Irish chieftain
- Sorley MacLean, (Somhairle MacGill-Eain, 1911–1996), one of the most significant Scottish poets of the 20th century
Sumarlidi
[edit]- Sumarlidi Sigurdsson, 11th-century Earl of Orkney
See also
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Hanks, Hardcastle & Hodges 2006, pp. 356, 409; Hanks, & Hodges 1997, pp. ix, 230.
- ^ Fellows-Jensen 1995, p. 400.
- ^ Hanks, Hardcastle & Hodges 2006, p. 409; Hanks, & Hodges 1997, p. 230, 233.
- ^ Mark 2003, p. 716.
- ^ Hanks, Hardcastle & Hodges 2006, pp. 240–241; Hanks, & Hodges 1997, p. 220.
- ^ Abrams 2008, pp. 183–184; Hanks, Hardcastle & Hodges 2006, pp. 356, 409; Hanks, & Hodges 1997, p. 230; Fellows-Jensen 1995, p. 398.
- ^ McDonald & McLean 1992, pp. 5–7.
- ^ Abrams 2008, pp. 183–184; Fellows-Jensen 1995, p. 398; McDonald & McLean 1992, pp. 5–7.
- ^ Woolf 2007, p. 194; Fellows-Jensen 1995, p. 398.
- ^ Woolf 2007, p. 194.
- ^ Fellows-Jensen 1995, p. 399.
- ^ Woolf 2007, p. 194; Fellows-Jensen 1995, p. 399.
- ^ McDonald & McLean 1992, p. 7 n. 1; Anderson 1922, pp. 468–469.
- ^ Woolf 2007, p. 194.
- ^ McDonald & McLean 1992, p. 7 n. 1.
- ^ Abrams 2008, pp. 183–184.
- ^ Fellows-Jensen 1995, p. 399; McDonald & McLean 1992, p. 7 n. 1.
- ^ Fellows-Jensen 1995, p. 398.
References
[edit]- Abrams, Leslie (2008), "King Edgar and the Men of the Danelaw", in Scragg, Donald (ed.), Edgar, King of the English, 959–975: New Interpretations, Publications of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, pp. 171–191, ISBN 978-1-84383-399-4, ISSN 1478-6710.
- Anderson, Alan Orr, ed. (1922), Early Sources of Scottish History: A.D. 500 to 1286, vol. 1, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.
- Fellows-Jensen, Gillian (1995), "Some Orkney Personal Names", in Batey, Colleen E.; Jesch, Judith; Morris, Christopher D. (eds.), The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney, and the North Atlantic, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 397–407.
- Hanks, Patrick; Hodges, Flavia (1997), A Concise Dictionary of First Names (Revised ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860094-1.
- Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006), A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford Paperback Reference (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1.
- Mark, Colin (2003), The Gaelic-English Dictionary, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-203-27706-6.
- McDonald, Russell Andrew; McLean, Scott A. (1992), "Somerled of Argyll: A New Look at Old Problems", The Scottish Historical Review, 71 (191/192), Edinburgh University Press: 3–22, JSTOR 25530531.
- Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-1233-8.
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