Caitrìona, Ùna and Mhàiri

[dunkydunker]

What do you think?

I want something Scottish but not very very obvious (DH is very very far away from Scottish)

What about Lorna? That is Scottish but not too Scottish, and I can't think of any spelling/pronunciation issues.

I'm an Irish Caitríona, and yes, techinically that's the correct spelling. Leathan le leathan, caol le caol and all that : )

As Gaeilge, i and e are 'skinny' vowels and a, o and u are 'broad' vowels; vowels on each side of a consonant must be of the same type, so the 'Catríona' spelling is impossible as you need the first 'i' as a buffer between the 'a' and the 'í'.

This thread is fun : )

oh yeeeeeeeeees. and yet i know proper hardcore gaels who spell it cat. i'd have thought she'd have changed it... weird.

to solve the Rona/Rhona question and as a matter of general interest, Gaelic names which begin with a vowel or the letters L, N and R do not change from the stand alone form (nominative case).
So when addressing Isabel, Eilidh, Una, Anna, Rhona/Rona, Niall, Alistair etc do not add an h after the first letter.

Enough grammar (or pedantry) from me for today

ack. i knew that too. wonder where the Rhona came from, then? how would it change the sound? or would it not?

i LOVE this thread btw, and think we should re-instate the MN Gaidhlig class.

The fadas are the wrong way around in the title, it's Caitríona, Úna and Mháiri ...

They're not fadas, they're stràcs. And that's the way round they go.

Oh! in Irish they go the way I just wrote. I thought was the same in Scots Gaelic

Should check perhaps before I state things as fact!!!

'S alright! SG used to have the acute accents as well - they got lost in a spelling reform. Some people still miss (& defiantly use) them.

And oops, sràc not stràc.

this is Good Stuff.

DP is Irish / Scottish and has a yearning for a "hardcore" Gaelic name for forthcoming DS2. I'm all for it but seeing as I'm English and we live in the heart of Bumpkinshire this could get interesting..

with the new Gaelic orthographic conventions the only remaining accent is the grave as shown here on the a - à

Lorna isn't a Scottish name as such (actually, I don't know how watertight the theory that R.D Blackmore made it up is).

It sounds Scottish though, and is certainly v popular in Scotland (around women of my age anyway, the ones who weren't called Rhona or Claire), which is probably good enough.

Celtic Fringe - Unite!!

Does Gaidhlig not follow the rule that Irish does for the vocative case where a name starts with a vowel?
'A hÁine' for instance is how you would call Áine to her dinner in Irish.

I love Eilidh but I have probably been murdering the pronunciation. And Marsaili too. Of the names in the OP, I like Una best.

Mairéad in Irish and in Ireland would be pronounced Mah-RAID for the most part (depends a bit on regional accent). The D is often a bit softer than the English D, more like a French D.

From experience the name Mairead is pronounced Myratt in Scottish Gaelic and MA-raid in Irish. That is what I have always heard.

Wow, didn't know the whole Mhairi thing was wrong...

PEDANTS AND PURISTS READ NO FURTHER

I know of someone who has just named their baby Vhairi. Which if I understand correctly, is the wrong spelling, of the wrong pronunciation, of Mairi (with squiggly Gaelic lines)

I like all the names.

Can I just say, as an ignorant Sassenach, that I would pronounce the names;
Catreeona
Yewna
Mary

I now know that Catriona is pronouced Katrina, but I don't know how many oher people would.

Was I right with the other two?

Just another point
How irritated would you be if people spelt the names correctly but missed off the accents? I don't even know how to get them from my keyboard.

Vhairi is double-extra wrong!

Una is Oona, Mairi is Maarie with the stress on the first syllable. Um, that doesn't look very clear, and I'm having trouble thinking of things that rhyme with it. Maybe Bari in Italy?

gutted at all this mhairi-bashing tbh.

Thanks. I wasn't trying to be provocative or rude, but I am not familiar with Gaelic pronunciations. Also I was thinking of Una Stubbs and her name is pronounced Yewna.

I still like the names though.

Why do you think it's bashing? Not being narky, genuinely interested .

saying that it's a wrong name, that anyone spelling it that way is a numpty, etc.

plenty of names are different from their precise origins for one reason or another. i don't know how you can be wrong for being called something, or using a given spelling.