Celtic Woman Forum
Everything Else => Celtic Culture => Topic started by: CWazyTom on July 05, 2019, 10:36:48 PM
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Irish names can be really hard to pronounce and spell sometimes. I thought we could all learn some common Irish names together in bite-sized pieces. I think a lot of us probably remember poor Saoirse (ser-sha) Ronan trying to teach us how to pronounce her name a while back.
Here's one that may be familiar to those of us at Johnstown Castle:
Caoimhe (the floor manager at the Ancient Land DVD recording)
It's pronounced KEY-va (or sometimes QWEE-vuh) and means gentle.
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Our second Name of the Day is Róisín.
It's pronounced Ro-Sheen. It's derived from the Latin name Rosa and means "little rose."
Some of you may remember Róisín Depsey (http://www.roisindempsey.com/) from the Celtic Woman choir. Now, if you're ever lucky enough to meet her, you can say her name!
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Aoife or Aífe (pronounced EE-fa), is an Irish girl's name that means beautiful, radiant, or joyful.
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One of my neighbors from a couple of streets over is pregnant with daughter number three....her name is Alex ;) and I asked her about potential names and she gave me a few they`ve thought of.They have an Irish last name so I said "how about Maev?" and she looked at me and said "I LOVE that, we`ll definitely consider it".
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Aisling
Pronounced ASH-ling
Variations: Aislinn / Aislinn (ASH-lin)
The name means vision or dream.
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Masculine form: Ciarán (pronounced KEER-awn or something like KEER-en)
Feminine form: Ciara (pronounced KEY-rah)
It means "dark," "little dark one," or "little dark-haired one."
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Laoise (pronounced LEE-sha) means "radiant girl." An anglicized version of the name is Louisa.
Fun fact: that was the name of my tour guide at Trinity College while I was in Dublin before seeing the Ancient Land recording last year.
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Niamh (pronounced “neev" or "nee + iv")
It means "brightness," "radiance," or "lustre."
In Celtic lore, Niamh is the daughter of the sea god Manannan (who was also known as "Manannán mac Lir," who was referred to in a certain song in Celtic Woman: Ancient Land ;) ).
Niamh was said to have had golden hair. She lived with Fionn’s son Oisin (a human hero) in Tir-na-nOg ("Land of the Young"). For us sci-fi nerds here, Tir-na-nOg existed in a state of temporal displacement with our normal perception of space-time. For example, for every 3 years in our time, 300 years passed in Tir-na-nOg ... kind of like Narnia in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Oisin was said to have gotten homesick after a while in Tir-na-nOg. Niamh reluctantly allowed Oisin to return home on a magical horse, but cautioned him to never again touch the ground. Unfortunately, Oisin one day fell from the hours. The years quickly caught up to him and he died of old age, never again to be reunited with his lover Niamh.
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Niamh (pronounced “neev" or "nee + iv")
It means "brightness," "radiance," or "lustre."
In Celtic lore, Niamh is the daughter of the sea god Manannan (who was also known as "Manannán mac Lir," who was referred to in a certain song in Celtic Woman: Ancient Land ;) ).
Niamh was said to have had golden hair. She lived with Fionn’s son Oisin (a human hero) in Tir-na-nOg ("Land of the Young"). For us sci-fi nerds here, Tir-na-nOg existed in a state of temporal displacement with our normal perception of space-time. For example, for every 3 years in our time, 300 years passed in Tir-na-nOg ... kind of like Narnia in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Oisin was said to have gotten homesick after a while in Tir-na-nOg. Niamh reluctantly allowed Oisin to return home on a magical horse, but cautioned him to never again touch the ground. Unfortunately, Oisin one day fell from the hours. The years quickly caught up to him and he died of old age, never again to be reunited with his lover Niamh.
Very cool! One of our days on the bus tour in Ireland, our tour guide put on a cd for us to listen to on the bus that told the story of Niamh, Oisin, and Tir na nOg. It was fun to listen to, especially since we love the Celtic Woman song so much.
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Today's name of the day is Cian (pronounced KEE-an or KEEN), meaning "ancient."
A rule of thumb is that all C's are hard in Irish, so if you see a "c," it's probably pronounced like a "k."
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Today's name of the day is Eithne (pronounced EN-ya if you can believe it). It's an Irish girl's name meaning kernel of a nut or seed. It has many variations (not all of which are pronounced the same), including:
Ethnea, Ethlend, Ethnen, Ethlenn, Ethnenn, Eithene, Ethne, Aithne, Enya, Ena, Edna, Etney, Eithnenn, Eithlenn, Eithna, Ethni, Edlend, and Edlenn.
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Sorcha
Looks simple, doesn't it?
It's apparently pronounced sor+aka or surk+ha.
It's an Irish girl's name. Similar to Niamh, it means bright, radiant, or light.
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Today's name of the day is Eoghan. If you guessed o-in (Owen) was the way to pronounce it, you guessed right!
It means born of yew (tree); youth.
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Today's name is Siobhan.
We here on the forum are probably getting good at pronouncing the "bh" combo correctly (as "v" most of the time). The name's pronounced like “SHIV-awn.”
But apparently there are some people out there pronouncing it "SEE o ban" or "SIGH o bawn." Sigh...
It's anglicized version is "Joan."
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Today's name is Ruairi (pronounced ROOR-e or RUUR-e), meaning “red-haired king,” from “ruadh” meaning red, as in the red colored hair of foxes. The anglicisation is Rory.
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That's neat! I know a guy named Rory. I suppose the second syllable of Ruairi comes from rí, the Irish word for king. Since I'm learning Spanish, I noticed it's pretty close to the Spanish word for king, rey.
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Today's name is Ewan, meaning "young warrior."
It's pronounced like "YEW-an."
That's in contrast to Eoghan, pronounced like "Owen."
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Today's name is Máirín (pronounced Maw-reen).
It means "star of the sea!"
The English version is "Maureen."
Curious if Mairead/Máiréad/Mairéad also had a sea-related meaning, I looked it up. The English version is Margaret, which means "pearl." Both rare and beautiful, a name that means pearl seems fitting for two of our favorite performers.
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Cadhla (KY-lah) means beautiful, comely, and graceful.
It's one of my favorite Irish names. It seems to roll off the tongue (once you know how to pronounce it) and it has a pleasant sound.
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Sile (SHEE-la) means 'pure and musical' or 'heavenly.' It's a derivative of Cecilia.
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Fergal means brave, courageous and valorous. In contrast to most Irish names/words, this one is pronounced pretty much as it looks.
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The first name for today is Emer (pronounced "EE-mer").
It means "swift." She possessed the six gifts of womanhood: beauty, a gentle voice, sweet words, wisdom, needlework and chastity. Eimear was the wife of warrior Cuchulainn.
Cuchulainn, pronounced "koo-KUL-in" and sometimes spelled Cú Chulaind or Cúchulainn, means “hound of Culann." It was actually a title, rather than a name. The legend's true name was Sétanta, meaning “Son of Sualtam.”
Some might recognize the name Cuchulainn from the gorgeous lament Caoineadh Cú Chulainn from Riverdance. It was an absolute pleasure to hear Tara Howley perform it live in the show twice and I'm glad it was captured on DVD (just before the pandemic). If you haven't heard it yet, this is a must-listen:
https://youtu.be/ksf9xqz-neQ