Index of Names in Irish Annals: Descriptive Bynames: Cerr / Cearr
by Mari Elspeth nic Bryan (Kathleen M. O'Brien)
© 2000-2006 by Kathleen M. O'Brien. All rights reserved.
Version 2.0, updated 24 August 2006
Descriptive Bynames: Cerr / Cearr
Meaning:
"Crooked / Wry / Maimed"
Spellings:
What we know as a set of Irish Annals are manuscripts that were each compiled during a
particular time period, usually using older material as sources. For example, when
the Annals of the Four Masters were written from 1632 to 1636, they covered events
that occurred centuries and millenia before (including legendary history). So, when
an entry in this set of annals refers to a person who lived in the year 738, the
spelling used for that person's name is very likely not using the spelling that
would have been used in 738.
Standard forms of this name (based on spelling systems of different periods) would be:
| Oghamic Irish (pre-700) nominative form: | [unknown] |
| Oghamic Irish (pre-700) genitive form: | [unknown] |
|
| Old Irish Gaelic (c700-c900) nominative form: | Cerr |
| Old Irish Gaelic (c700-c900) genitive form: | Cirr |
|
| Early Modern Irish Gaelic (c1200-c1700) nominative form: | Cearr |
| Early Modern Irish Gaelic (c1200-c1700) genitive form: | |
Frequency & Dates:
| Number of men found in the annals with this name: | 4 |
| Found in Years: | 591, 595, 624, 627, 629, 721, 1406 |
Research Notes:
[Answering a question about a standardized form of this byname:]
We just had it as part of the compound cerrbél: cerr
'crooked, wry, maimed'. Your forms are correct. The DIL
has an example in which the byname is clearly in the
genitive; it's also lenited, so it appears as Chirr, but
the plain genitive would be cirr, which is what I'd
expect. Dinneen says that cearr is indeclinable, while
the Sc.Gaelic cognate has genitives cearra and ciorra;
this suggests that the declension was unstable, and I
couldn't tell you what form of the genitive was most common
generally in the EMIr period. (My guess is that it changed
over time.) [email from Talan Gwynek - 13 Jul 2006]
Sources:
Further information about the byname Cerr / Cearr may be found in:
The Sources page lists the Annals referenced below.
Information about secondary sources is included on that page as well.
Raw Data
In the table below, I have separated individuals with a blank line. That is, when there are multiple
entries in the annals that refer to a single person, those entries are grouped together.
Within the list of entries refering to a single person, I have sorted the entries
primarily by orthography when it is obvious that what I am seeing is the same entry
showing up in multiple annals. The entries that tend to use older spellings are listed first.
NOTE: The Annals referenced below under the code letters A, B, C, E, & F tend to use
later spellings than the other Annals. In some cases, the spellings listed in these Annals
may not be appropriate for the year referenced in the Annal entry.
In some Gaelic scripts, there is a character that looks approximately like a lowercase f,
but without the crossbar. This character (represented by an underscored , e, in
the entries below) sometimes represents e and sometimes ea depending upon the
context of the text.
| [Standardized form of this man's name] |
| Annals | Entry | Context | Citation (formatting preserved) |
| |
| (d. 591) |
| T | T595.3 | | Aed Cerr mac Colmain rí Laigen |
| A | M591.2 | | Aodh Cerr, mac Colmain, mic Coirpre, ri Laighen |
| |
| (d. 624-630) |
| U | U629.1 | | Conid Cerr, rex Dal Riati |
| T | T627.1 | | Connadh Cerr ríg Dal Ríada |
| A | M624.6 | | Condaidh Cerr, tigherna Dail Riada |
| T | T629.1 | | Condadh Cerr rí Dal Riada |
| CS | CS630 | | Connaidh Chirr |
| U | U694.5 | | Fercair m. Connaeth Cirr |
| |
| [] (d. 721) |
| A | M721.16 | | Cathal Cerr, toisech Descert Bregh |
| |
| (d. 1406) |
| MCB3 | MCB1406.17 | AN | Nicol Cerr mac Seadhan Dalatuan |
Medieval Scotland | Medieval Names Archive | Index of Names in Irish Annals
Feminine Given Names | Feminine Descriptive Bynames | Masculine Given Names | Masculine Descriptive Bynames
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(Jan 2006)
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