Irish boys names?

[mmgirish]

Hi,
I'm having a boy and although we could think of lots of lovely girls names we are getting stuck on boys names now that we know what we're having. We would like a nice Irish name, any suggestions??
Cheers,

Talcum am Scottish not Irish but so share your feelings on this one. So many ill-informed baby names sites and books think that they can stick the adjective 'Celtic' in front of any old name - and add nonsensical 'variants', also.

Only about half of them are genuine Irish names, if that. And they are mostly spelled wrong!

well flora...its been a family name for acouple of generations now. Irish and Scottish Gaelic are, as I am sure you know very similar. Liam is not William. In Irish it derives from Ulliam.

I simply do not believe that names have to be translations of english names. just cos they sound similar doesn't make it a translation. So the Irish girls name Liadan for example. it has no translation into an english name. why would it have to?

Lots of languages have their own history of names. Ireland is no different. I am assuming the same for Scotland.

Loki Is Seoirse not freedom ?

Ink I am no expert. But all the experts say that Uilliam/Uilleam is the Gaelic (Scottish or Irish) version of William. I'm prepared to believe them.

I absolutely agree that some Gaelic names have no translation into English, but that does not mean that there have not been borrowings between languages over the centures.

For example, Charles (Tearlach in Gaelic) originated from a Germanic word, Carl/Karl translated into Latin (Carolus) and was then spread throughout Europe by the institutional church and by royal conquerors. In Scotland and Ireland it was pronouced Tearlach. (In western Scotland, that sounds rather like Charlie: Tchar-lochh.)

Similarly Seamas (James) has Hebrew origins. It is the English version, via French, of the Old Testament name Jacob. In Gaelic it becomes (through pronounciation) Seamas.

The Wikipedia article I linked to explains in detail the spread of 'William'.

Over the years, names like Seamus and Tearlach and Uilliam become identified with Gaelic culture. Today, they have indeed become Irish, or Scottish. I really, really wasn't wishing to say otherwise. I was just wishing to point to their ultimate origins.

Saoirse means freedom, Seoirse is George/Giorgia. A lot of Irish names are quite descriptive such as Caoilfhionn which means slender and fair, Feargal- bright man, Sullivan which we normally use as a surname- one eye, etc.

How do you pronounce Seoirse

Are you in the Uk or Ireland? Both Cian and Cillian are very popular here in Ireland at the moment. I know about 6 or 7 of each under the age of 8.

Kieran

Flor/Florence?

no, Ciaran.

Lucy- sorsha

Jeez- call the baby name police to bitch about names copied from a book.

Nest of vipers indeed.

Liam is the Irish form of William in the same way as William is the English form of Liam. Neither name is derived from the other, but they both have the same origin, the German name Willahelm/Wilhelm, via Norman French.

Kieran, granted is an Anglo version of Ciaran but it has been in regular use in Ireland for decades.

My ds is Declan

And he has a Cillian in his class which I also love

I have a Ciar - the result of a compromise between Keir and Ciaran.

The meaning of Ciaran being the little dark one or little swarthy one I think. We didn't think he'd be little and it's the "an" bit that means little. My preference was for the Scottish Keir my OH wanted Ciaran. I got the name he got the spelling.

A bit of a change from the popular Cian if that floats your boat.

I like Cormac too.

Bitching? Just saying, way to over-react.

I have a 13 week old Rónán. He is lovely. Others on the list were:

Sé (pronounced Shay)
Lorcan
Daire (I met a 7 week old Daire yesterday and he was so cute).

Went for Rónán as we liked the meaning (little seal), there is a marvel character called Ronan the accuser (husbands input here ) and it fitted well with our surname.

Oh I forgot we had Oisin on there too, but English DH found it very difficult to pronounce so we dropped it. But if it hadn't been for that we would have used it.

Cillian

Have a look at this website

www.irishabroad.com/yourroots/genealogy/babynames/tradirishboys.asp

It has Irish names and the meanings and pronounciations. The fada over the letter is done by pressing the letter on the keyboard at the same time as the alt gr key. If you know anyone living in a Gaeltacht area in Ireland they might have some nice original suggestions also.

Just for balance if anyone is interested the one for the girl's names is:

www.irishabroad.com/yourroots/genealogy/babynames/tradirishgirls.asp

Inkspellme -- Uilliam is Irish for William/Guillaume/Wilhelm. It was absorbed into Irish after the arrival of the Normans.

Weatherall, it's a bit of a sore point that 'Irish names' are invented and published willy nilly.

LucyBabs --
Seoirse (pr Shorsha) is George.
(It's not pronounced Sorsha. No Irish name is pronounced Sorsha.)
Saoirse (pr Seersha or Sairsha) is 'freedom',

Suggestions (some anglicisations):
Luan -- (LOO-an)
Séamus
Laserian
Moling
Nessan
Dónal -- (DOE-nul)
Laoghaire -- (LAIR-uh)
MacDara -- (Moc-DA-ra)
MacCartan -- (Muh-cartan)
Marcán -- (Mark-awn)
Eoin -- (Owen)
Eoghan -- (Owan)
Luíseach -- (LEE-shukh)
Fiach -- (FEE-ukh)
Fiachra -- (FEE-uh-khra)
Fionán -- (FYUN-awn)
Fionbharr/ Finbar -- (FYUN-vuhr)
Fionntáin/ Fintan -- (FYUN-thawn)
Feidhlim/ Felim -- (FAY-lim)
Ailbhe -- (AL-veh)
Conleth
Colmán -- (Kull-mawn)
Cóilín -- (COAL-een)
Conán/ Conan -- (Kun-awn)