Sorley and Somerled are masculine

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...

s in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

, Anglicizations of

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

Somhairle and Norse Sumarlidi.

Etymology

''Sorley'' is an

Anglicised Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

form of ' (modern ), a name mutual to both the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

and

languages, which means "summer wanderer". The Gaelic name is a form of the English ''Somerled'', and both names are ultimately derived from the Old Norse

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

'. A variant form of ' is '. A variant form of ''Somerled'' is ''Summerlad'', a name altered by

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

, derived from the words "summer" and "lad". ' is sometimes Anglicised as ''

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...

'', although these two names are

etymologically Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words an ...

unrelated (the latter being ultimately of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

origin). The Old Norse personal name likely originated as a

byname An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

, meaning "summer-traveller", "summer-warrior", in reference to a

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

, or men who took to raiding during the summer months as opposed to full-time raiders. An early occurrence of the term is ' (', perhaps meaning "fleet"), recorded in the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

'' under the year 871. Another early occurrence of the term is ', meaning "fleet of the '", which is recorded in the 12th-century ''

Chronicle of the Kings of Alba The ''Chronicle of the Kings of Alba'', or ''Scottish Chronicle'', is a short written chronicle of the Kings of Alba, covering the period from the time of Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed mac Ailpín) (d. 858) until the reign of Kenneth II (Cináed mac ...

'', in an account of an attack on

Buchan Buchan is an area of north-east Scotland, historically one of the original provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. It is now one of the six committee areas and administrative areas of Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland. These areas were created by th ...

in the mid-10th century. Possibly the earliest record of the personal name occurs in a grant of land in

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

Edgar the Peaceful Edgar ( ang, Ēadgār ; 8 July 975), known as the Peaceful or the Peaceable, was King of the English from 959 until his death in 975. The younger son of King Edmund I and Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, he came to the throne as a teenager following ...

in 958. Several men with the name are recorded in early Icelandic sources, such as the 10th-century , and his son , Icelanders said to have been of Scottish and Hebridean ancestry. The first historical personage in Orkney with the name was , Earl of Orkney, eldest son of , Earl of Orkney (d. 1014). Fellows-Jensen 1995, p. 398.

List of persons with the given name

Somerled

Somerled Somerled (died 1164), known in Middle Irish as Somairle, Somhairle, and Somhairlidh, and in Old Norse as Sumarliði , was a mid-12th-century Norse-Gaelic lord who, through marital alliance and military conquest, rose in prominence to create the ...

(died 1164), Lord of Argyll, King of the Hebrides and Kintyre

* , 17th-century Irish soldier

Sorley

Sorley Boy MacDonnell Sorley Boy MacDonnell (Scottish Gaelic: ''Somhairle Buidhe Mac Domhnaill''), also spelt as MacDonald (c. 1505 – 1590), Scoto-Irish chief, was the son of Alexander Carragh MacDonnell, 5th of Dunnyveg, of Dunyvaig Castle, lord of Islay and ...

, (died 1590), Scottish/Irish chieftain * Sorley MacLean, (', 1911–1996), one of the most significant Scottish poets of the 20th century

* , 11th-century Earl of Orkney

Citations

References