Irish FAQ: Irish Names [9/10]
Newsgroups: soc.culture.irish,soc.answers,news.answers From: irish-faq@salmon.muc.de (Irish FAQ Maintainer) Subject: Irish FAQ: Irish Names [9/10] Followup-To: soc.culture.irish Supersedes: <cultures/irish-faq/part08_866059105@salmon.muc.de> Sender: cpm@salmon.muc.de (Christian Murphy) Expires: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 02:00:13 GMT Organization: private site in Munich, Germany Message-ID: <cultures/irish-faq/part09_868154413@salmon.muc.de> References: <cultures/irish-faq/part05_868154408@salmon.muc.de> <cultures/irish-faq/part06_868154409@salmon.muc.de> <cultures/irish-faq/part07_868154410@salmon.muc.de> <cultures/irish-faq/part08_868154412@salmon.muc.de> Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 02:00:13 GMT Summary: information of interest to people who read soc.culture.irish Archive-name: cultures/irish-faq/part09 Last-modified: 21 Jun 97 Posting-Frequency: monthly URL: http://www.muc.de/~cpm/irish-faq/ Part nine of ten. This is the list of Frequently Asked Questions of soc.culture.irish with answers. Send corrections, suggestions, additions, and other feedback to <irish-faq@salmon.muc.de> Irish Names 1) Does anyone have a list of Irish names? 2) How do you pronounce that? 3) Are there any books of Irish names? 4) I'm looking for information about a family name: where does it comes 1) Does anyone have a list of Irish names? Here's a list of Irish names gathered from various sources (postings, birth and death columns, memory and anything else I could get my hands on). Warning: I am not particularly good at Irish (the language) and I'm certainly not an expert on names. This list is not complete and it may contain horrendous mistakes. Thank you to those who have already sent me corrections, suggestions and additions! More are welcome, and I will try to incorporate them into a future update. The list now includes different spellings of the same name on the same line, because this is not obvious when they are separated by half the list. Many names have many different regional spellings, some times reflecting regional pronunciations. Names have been a bit more resistant to spelling reform and standardisation than the rest of the language (you can learn Irish in school for years without realising that there are different dialects). I have put the Anglicised spellings last; they are, however, very popular and give English speakers a clue how to pronounce the name. Where there is a direct equivalent English name, I have given it in brackets; in some cases, the Irish name is derived from the English version. There is no real way to say that one tell pronunciation of a word from its spelling: no Irish dialect ever established itself as the "official" one (unlike RP in English or Hochdeutsch in German). Fiona Hyland maintains a page with Irish first names at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/fch2/Irishnames.html that includes pronunciations for each name. [ ~ Engl. denotes the traditional English equivalent. = Engl. denotes the English translation ] Girl's Names Áine (~ Engl. Anne) Aisling Aislinn Aoibheann Aoife (~ Engl. Eve) Blathnat Bláithníd (~ Engl. Florence) Bláithín (~ Engl. Florence) Briana Breena Brianagh Bríd Caitríona Catriona (= Engl. Catherine) Caoímhe Keeva Caoilfhionn Clíona Cliodhna Cáit (= Engl. Kate) Cáitlin Kathleen Ciara Clodagh Críosa Dáiríe Deirdre Daoirdre Dearbhaile [same as below?] Derbhle Deirbhle Dearbhla Dervla Eadaoín Aideen Eibhlín Eileen Aileen Eilis Ailis Aelish (~ Engl. Elizabeth) Eimear Emer Eithne Fionnuala Fionula Gobnait Gobnat (~ Engl. Deborah) Gráinne (~ Engl. Grace) Liadán Laoise (~ Engl. Louise) Máire Maura (= Engl. Mary) Máiréad (~ Engl. Margaret) Máirín Maureen (= Engl. Mary [dimuntive at the end -- "little Mary"]) Medbh Maedhbh Maeve Muireann Muirin Neassa Nóirín Noreen Nuala Niamh Neasa Orlaith Órla Órfhlaith Orla Ríonach Róis (~ Engl. Rose) Róisín Saibh Saidhbh Sive Sinéad (~ Engl. Jane) Siobhán (~ Engl. Joan) Síle Sheila Siún Sorcha Treasa (= Engl. Theresa) Tríona (short for Catriona?) Úna Oonagh (~ Engl. Winifred) Boy's Names Aonghus Aongus Aodán Aodhagán Aidan Breandán Brendan Brían Brefni Breffni Cathal (~ Engl. Charles) Cian Ciarán Kieran Cilian Killian Caoimhín Caoimhghin Kevin Colm Colum Cormac Cruchuar Conchúr Conchubhar Conor Dáire Darragh Dáithí (= Engl. David) Deaglán Declan Diarmaid Diarmuid Dermot Donagh Donncha Donnchadh Dónal Donal Eamonn Éamon (~ Engl. Edward) Eoghan Eoin Owen Enda Feargal Fergus Fiachra Fionnbár Finbarr Fionntán Fintan Fionn Gabhan Gavan Gavin Gearóid Guaire Iarla Jarlath Liam (~ Engl. William) Lilis Mícheál Naoise Nessan Nessun Niall Neil Neill Oisín Oscar Osgur Pádraic Pádraig (= Engl. Patrick) Peadar (= Engl. Peter) Proinsias (= Engl. Francis, Frank) Ronan Ronán Ruairí Rory Ruairc Ruán Seán (= Engl. John) Séamas Séamus (Engl. James) Seóirse (Engl. George) Tadhg (~ Engl. Timothy) Tiarnán Tomás (= Engl. Thomas) Ultan Some names I'm not sure of Ulick Are these Irish? If so, what is the canonical Irish spelling? 2) How do you pronounce that? You may have noticed that there's a fair bit of duplication above. There are anglicised spellings, Irish spellings and slight variations of the same name, even in the modern Irish spelling. Some of the variations are probably regional. This guide is, needless to say, incomplete and may contain serious mistakes. Here are approximate transiliterations for the letters that don't exist in English. The slash above the letter is called a fada in Irish, meaning long, because it lengthens the vowel). á = aw - awe, crawl (a - flat in Ulster) é = ay - hay, bray í = ee - feed, creep ó = o - owe, flow ú = oo - cool, fool (more like the French word for "where") Some of the consonants are pronounced differently. s = sh (when it is in the stressed syllable) bh = v dh = g mh = w th = h Note that the letters j,k,q,v,w,x,y,z do not occur in Irish. The letter c is always pronounced hard, as in cow, never soft as in cigarette. Irish spelling insists on grouping "fat" vowels and "thin" vowels when they are separated by a consonant. The fat vowels are a, o and u. The thin vowels are e and i. So if a word would have a fat vowel followed by a consonant (or several) followed by a thin vowel breaks the rule: a vowel must be inserted to balance the spelling. Thus "Osín" is wrong; it must be "Oisín"; "Sibhán" must be turned into "Siobhán". The extra letter is generally silent. 3) Are there any books of Irish names? Title: Beyond Shannon and Seán Author: Linda Rosenkranz & Pamela Redmond Satran Publisher: St. Martin's Press 1992 Title: Irish Names Author: Donncha Ó Corráin & Fidelma Maguire Publisher: Lilliput 1990 Title: The Book of Irish Saints Author: Eoin Neeson Publisher: Mercier 1967 Title: An Sloinnteoir Gaeilge agus an tAinmnitheoir Author: Muiris Ó Droighneáin Publisher: Coiscéim 1991 Title: Celtic Baby Names Author: Judy Sierra Ph.D. Publisher: Folkprint, 1997 4) I'm looking for information about a family name: where does it comes from? What does it mean? You might have more luck asking in soc.genealogy.surnames . If you are interested in general discussion about researching Irish (and British) family names, you could try soc.genealogy.uk+ireland. If you have access to the web, have a look at the Genealogy Meta FAQ at http://www.meertech.demon.co.uk/genuki/meta-faq.htm and for soc.genealogy.uk+ireland, there's http://www.meertech.demon.co.uk/genuki/socguki.htm If you don't mind doing a bit of research of your own, there's a guide called IRLGEN that you might find useful. You'll find it on the web at http://www.bess.tcd.ie/roots_ie.htm
[
By Archive-name
| By Author
| By Category
| By Newsgroup
]
[
Home |
Latest Updates |
Archive Stats |
Search |
Usenet References |
Help
]
Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer:
Last Update August 12 1997 @ 02:35 AM faq-admin@faqs.org