Tadhg or Paxton

[MarjorieX]

I'm pregnant with a boy and I quite like these two names. Tadhg is a name we have previously considered for our other sons but we didn't go for it. Paxton would be after my grandad. I'm so indecisive and my baby is due in a month so I'm really not sure on what name to choose. What are your opinions on these names and do you have any middle name suggestions for them? Thank you

Was wondering what words in Modern Irish relate to Tadhg. Apparently it's from Proto-Celtic Tazg(j)o. There are several but the most interesting is "taisce" which means treasure, store, repository. Before writing poets stored knowledge and history.
Taisce is pronounced Tashka.

@lavenderlove
I'm confused as I have a friend called "Tadhgh" and he pronounces it "Tay-Dee" and is called "Tad" for short. Is this a completely different name with the extra h?

Thady (pr. Taydee) is sometimes used as an anglicisation of Tadhg.

In older official documents (pre-Independence) it was common for people to have their everyday Irish name and an 'official' name (i.e. an acceptable English or anglicised name) that was an approximation of the Irish name, or a translation, or something completely different with maybe a very tenuous link, like Deborah for Gobnait.

Thady is also used as a nn for Thaddeus.

I know a Thady 'taydee' and his real name is Thaddeus. I like that.

@mathanxiety Dineen's dictionary says:
"Teig, Teague or Thady, Tady (=Thaddeus) and equated with Timothy ..."
I think this means the Irish name was pronounced all those ways. Both Thaddeus and Timothy were used as English alternatives.
In my family Tadg was pronounced Ted or Tady in Irish, with Tim as the alternate.

So Tady is not an Anglicisation. Linguistically, for O. Ir. Tadc to split into Tadhg and Tadgh is natural.

Are you Irish @SeanCailleach
You are very interested in Irish names clearly but sometimes get pronounciations of commonly used names wrong. I can't match it up.

Idk. Does the OP have enough stuff on Tadhg now?

Both strong but prefer Tadhg! Good luck with everything xx

Was your grandad’s first name Paxton? I really don’t like last name first names, so I’d go for Tadhg (though he’ll be educating people on how to spell it).

@Ritascornershop Yes, grandad's first name was Paxton.

@Greyhoundgirly Thank you!

Thank you everyone for the information on the name Tadhg! It's very helpful and useful. We've decided on the first name being Tadhg, now we are deciding on whether to have Paxton as the middle name or something else.

I don't like either of them I'm afraid. Are there any other names you like. I haven't heard of Tadhg and wouldn't have a clue how to pronounce it.

@coronabeer - If your son is going to be growing up I the UK, I think it's a bit mean to subject him to a lifetime of explaining how to pronounce/ spell his name.

Or maybe you could recognise that there are people living in the UK who have cultures and heritages that aren't anglo-saxon?

@MarjorieX - We've decided on the first name being Tadhg, now we are deciding on whether to have Paxton as the middle name or something else.

Great choice. It's a lovely name. I'm not a major fan of Paxton. It sounds a bit harsh for my tastes.

In my family Tadg was pronounced Ted or Tady in Irish, with Tim as the alternate.

I've never heard Tadhg pronounced with a d sound, and I know several, including my father.

@LaVitaPuoEsserePiuBella - I'm so sorry .... they are both absolutely awful... the spelling of the first is just so ugly, and I hate names that are originally surnames.

Maybe broaden your horizons a little? There's no need to be rude just because you're too insular too recognise that foreign does not equal ugly.

Paxton does not sound at all like a first name (and makes me think of Paxo stuffing and Jeremy Paxman) so I would go for Tadhg but prepare to correct people’s spelling and pronunciation!

I would suspect a Tady or Ted/ Tad pronunciation is related to use of Thaddeus on official documents. Working backwards, the initial Tad sound of Thaddeus may have seemed to justify using the Tady pronunciation of Tadhg.

I suspect the current split in spelling between (vast majority) Tadhg and (occasional) Tadgh is the result of careless typing, and possibly also a lack of understanding of Irish orthography.

If your son is going to be growing up I the UK, I think it's a bit mean to subject him to a lifetime of explaining how to pronounce/ spell his name.

Are the English really that closed minded and /or stupid though? All of them?

It's everyone you meet for the first time mathanxiety.

If I hadn't seen it on here I would have guessed it to be pronounced Tie or Tayg.
You end up correct a lot of people in a lifetime, and people generally don't like being corrected. As a kid you get the unpleasant Ooooh! comment, and as an adult you get ignored.

correcting not correct

That sounds like an 'English people's problem' though. The name itself isn't the issue.

The bearer of an unfamiliar name can always choose what to make of the unpleasantness. I personally use any mangling of my Irish name the second time it's done as a way to sort people according to listening skills and further botching can lead to all sorts of entries in my mental spreadsheet.

Tadhg

@MikeUniformMike - You end up correct a lot of people in a lifetime, and people generally don't like being corrected. As a kid you get the unpleasant Ooooh! comment, and as an adult you get ignored.

Only if you're dealing with assholes. Most normal people have no issue with someone correcting a misprononciation of a name they're not familiar with. Only someone who is not only ignorant, but who also takes pride in their ignorance, would have an issue.

@OchonAgusOchonO, yeah right.

@MikeUniformMike - yeah right.

Maybe you just live in a Little Englander environment where people can't fathom that name that is not English, but in the real world, people generally have no issue with a name outside their experience.

I actually think Tadhg might get as popular as Seán, and be headline news on a crazy day like today.
@mathanxiety you might be right but maybe I'm not entirely wrong either.