Some of the best land is just W of the narrow entrance to the loch and has a good anchorage. Two place names there are enigmatic, Tobhta Hundair and Loch Hundair. The common Hundair indicates that there was a place called Hundair here, the meaning of which got lost but remained as a place name. The loch and the ruins were then named after this place, Hundair.
ON hundr= ‘dog’ is what one first considers but it would be very unlikely to call a place Dog.
A subtler alternative is ON tindr = 'tooth or a mountain peak'. In Norway, Rygh -the authority -quotes a farm name 'Tindr m., Fjeldtop. Named after a very high, pointed mountain peak, now called Tindstinden, under which the farm is located.' This could be describing the position of Tobhta Hundair and loch Hundair sitting under Lí a Deas. Hundair itself is likely to be close to Tobhta Hundair as ScG tobhta = ‘ruins’.
How does ON tindr become ‘Hundair’? In the Gaelicization process, we would expect the /t/ to be lenited producing /th/ which is pronounced /h/. The development of I > u is regular and interestingly the two examples of this transition that Henderson quotes are specifically Uist-based.
This gives the development tindr > thindr > hindr > hundr > hunder all stages of which are regular.
One might have expected the dative case, ON tind, and looking at the two earliest forms we have, Tottahount (1804) and Tattahount (1789) this is supported. One can almost feel the early map makers here wanting to make this name ‘hound’!
As supporting evidence, there are 16 Tindar place names in Iceland and over 60 Tinden in Norway.
Being the prime site in Loch Euphort and a simplex topographical name, it is likely to be the early primary settlement in the area.
Along the N shore there are then a series of five headland names, Ceithinis, Spónais, Roisinis, Brèinis and Ruidinis which could be the names of the secondary settlements.
Is there any evidence of Norse buildings to support this? A kilometre N of the N shore is a mound containing a set of shielings which do look remarkably like a shieling excavated in Iceland and thought to be 10thC.
Another interesting place name is Dun Nighean Righ Lochlainn, = ScG ‘fort of the daughter of the king of Norway’, also known as Dun Eideann. Markus in his ‘The Place names of Bute’ suggests, with the benefit of many earlier forms, that this could stem from ON þing = ‘assembly place.
Finally and showing possibly how these names can mutate is the name Cnoc Mhic Fhionnlaidh at th entrance ot Loch Euphort where it is narrowest. It appears to stem from ScG ‘son of Finlay’s hillock’. However a Norse alternative for the Fhionnlaidh component might be ON höfn leið = 'harbour course'.
The initial ScG /fh/ is silent. The IPA spelling for Fionn is /fjũːN/ and so without the initial /f/ becomes /jũːN/. Medial /f/ and terminal /ð/ letters often disappear. ON ei sounds like the /ay/ in 'hay' and so höfn leið > hön lay > hionn laidh > fhionn laidh. The 'Mhic' here could be ON vík = 'bay' and then reordered as part of the resemanticising process.
The topographic fit is probably too good to ignore and interesting there is an Eilean Fhionnlaidh in Loch Mhic Phail by the entrance to Oban Honary, itself probably coming from ON höfn ærg = ‘haven - shieling’.
As ever without a list of earlier forms, we will never know but for me the accumulation of small bits of evidence produces an interesting possibility.
With thanks, as ever, to David Newman for his plans.