Irish name variations

[SeanCailleach]

Irish nouns have different forms for nominative, vocative, and genitive, so:

Séamas is Shamus or Shéamais Hamish.
Aoibhe is Ayva, Aoibheann Ayvin or Aoibhinn Aveen.
Éire is Eyra or Éireann Erin or Éirinn Erin.

Hope this helps clear up some different ways of saying same name.
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Órla, Orlaith, Orla or Orlagh

There should be a source (?radical) name/noun though, that everything else is a declension of. ie the actual name.

Aoibhe is Ayva, Aoibheann Ayvin or Aoibhinn Aveen.

Nope Aoibhe would be Eva
Aoibheann - Eevin
Aoibhínn could be Eeveen but only if there's a fada over the last i.

If you wants Ayva it would be Éabha. If you want the Ay sound it needs to be é. Aoi is always ee.

@JaJaDingDong yes. The nominative case is the root.
@Shayisgreat Cén fáth a bhfuil tu chomh cinnte?

Tá Gaeilge agam!

Séamas is Shamus or Shéamais Hamish.
Aoibhe is Ayva, Aoibheann Ayvin or Aoibhinn Aveen.
Éire is Eyra or Éireann Erin or Éirinn Erin.

I can't really get my head round this.

Are you saying that sometimes Shamus will be called Hamish, and that Aoibhe, Aoibheann, Aoibhinn are the same name but depending on the sentence will be one or the other.

I can get the Éire version as it is Ireland, belonging to Ireland/irish, and of/from Ireland, I think

I'd need it explained in idiot terms.

Madambutterfingers
Like many other languages, Gaelic is 'inflected'; that is, nouns change their endings according to their grammatical function in the sentence, and according to their number (singular or plural) and gender (male, female, neuter, grammatically speaking).

Latin is probably the most famous example of this. Nouns (including names) have several different 'cases':
Nominative - the main word (or the main name); the subject of a sentence (The cat sat on the mat)
Vocative - used when speaking to someone (Hello, cat)
Accusative - when the word is the object of the sentence ( I was looking at cats on the internet)
Genitive - belonging to the word (That is the cat's basket)
Dative - given to the word (I gave the fish to the cat)
Ablative - by, with, from, in or on the word (The cream-jug was knocked over by the cat)

More scholarly explanation here:
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/stage-1-latin/lessons/lesson-2/

@MadameButterfingers yes that's exactly it. Each name has different forms that you use depending on the sentence:
Séamas is ainm do. (Shamus is his name)
Á Shéamais! (Oh Hamish!)
Séamas Mac Shéamais (Shamus Mac Hamish)

I know an Aoibhe who pronounces it Eva are there regional differences?

Thanks for the replies.
That seems really complicated.

I get the bit with the cat, but changing someone's name seems weird.

Sean O'Shane is just John Johnson but you might use Sean if you said Hi John, but O'Seaghan if it was Johnson and Oh Seaghan if it was Oh John.

Not sure how to do the fada and am guessing at correct spelling of Shane.

@MadameButterfingers I guess it is like you don't change the name, that is the name, you just say it differently.

@tiredanddangerous there are three main native dialects plus learners, plus Scots Gaelic. The letters ao rhymes roughly with bee, bay, bear, bee, and being.

Aoibhe = Eva. Aoi in Irish makes an ee sound (which is why Aoife = Eefa and not Ayfa).

That's to @tiredanddangerous btw. Would also point out that strictly speaking, Orla without a fada is pronounced Urla and means vomit. Tbh I don't think it's a huge deal, many people won't know that.