History UsefulNotes / IrishNames

* '''Ciarán''' (Keer-AWN or KEER-awn depending on dialect), meaning "little dark-haired one". Equally common in Anglicized form as "KEER-un", spelled [[SpellMyNameWithAnS either Ciaran, Kieran, Kieron, etc]]. St Ciarán was the first abbot of the famous monastery of Clonmacnoise.

In Ireland, the language is identified universally as ''Irish'', not [[ScotIreland "Gaelic"]], by English speakers. The language's autonym (name for itself) is ''Gaeilge'' (IPA: 'ɡeːlʲɟə).

-->--''Series/TheVicarOfDibley''

You might also notice that Irish names are far less prevalent in older Irish media, such as the work of Creator/JamesJoyce. That's because the Church had an unofficial policy of discouraging Irish names until the mid-late 20th century, as they were seen as a connection to a pagan, pre-Christian Ireland -- the old description was "a name a priest wouldn't pour water over".[[note]]For the Catholic majority, obviously. For the Protestant minority, the same applied but more because the majority were Unionists and more conspicuously "British" in names.[[/note]] The exception was extremely common names with clear Christian links, like Seán, Séamus, Pádraig or Mícheál, which were and still are omnipresent. There was also a lot of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching code-switching]], with many people having their legal name recorded in English, the prestige language, but going by their Irish name in daily life. This persists in the older generation down to the present day even among English monoglots -- many elderly Séamies or Mauras have 'James' or 'Mary' on their birth certificates. [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution Irish nationalists]] known by their Irish names usually changed them in adulthood as part of the Gaelic Revival - Éamonn Ceannt and Seán Mac Diarmada were born Edward Kent and John [=McDermott=]. But in the modern era, a Saoirse, Conor, Eimear or Eoin is ''much'' more likely to be under forty than over it.

* '''-ín''' (een). Not a name in itself, "-ín" is the diminutive ending in Irish and is often seen in names (for example, "Caitlín" and "Róisín"). A name that does not already have an "-ín" may be pronounced with one attached as a nonce expression of affection. The anglicized form is usually spelled "-een", and shows up, for instance, in the word "smithereens" as well as [[https://pusheen.com/characters/ Pusheen the cat]].

* '''-ín''' (een). Not a name in itself, "-ín" is the diminutive ending in Irish and is often seen in names (for example, "Caitlín" and "Róisín"). A name that does not already have an "-ín" may be pronounced with one attached as a nonce expression of affection. The anglicized form is usually spelled "-een", and shows up, for instance, in the word "smithereens".

* '''Conchobar/Conchobhar''' (modern Cro-khoor, old Con-kho-var)[[note]] If you're wondering where that "r" sound came from, it's because some words in Irish use an "n" in southern dialects and and "r" in Northern and Western dialects. "Cnoc" (hill) and "mná" (women) are pronounced "croc" and "mrá" in Ulster and Connemara. But when the spelling was standardised, the Munster spelling was used.[[/note]] Origin of the name 'Conor'. 'Connor' while a popular spelling outside Ireland is generally restricted to the surname "O'Connor" in Ireland unless the lad's parents adopted the American spelling. Its meaning is "lover of hounds" and has been the name of a few legendary high kings of Ireland.

While most people in UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}} today speak English, Irish (a member in the Goidelic branch of the Insular Celtic languages, closely related to Manx and Scottish Gaelic, and less closely to Breton, Cornish and Welsh) is spoken as an everyday language in some areas and as a name source among those who otherwise speak English. Written Irish uses a version of the Latin alphabet like English, but the similarities end there--the correspondence between Irish spelling and Irish pronunciation is quite different from the correspondence between English spelling and English pronunciation. Eighteen letters plus vowel acute accents [´] (the ''fada'') are used to write native words, the same letters as the English alphabet minus j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z. Lenited letters were traditionally represented by a dot [˙] above (the ''ponc séimhithe''), but now a lenited letter is followed by "h" in modern printed Irish (e.g. Meḋḃ becoming Medhbh).[[note]]In the "Irish" keyboard layout, '''á''' can be produced by pressing '''[=AltGr + a=]''', while '''ḃ''' is typed by pressing '''[=AltGr + w=]''', releasing them, then pressing '''b'''. If set to the alternate [="CloGaelach"=] mode, the latter is simplified to '''[=AltGr + b=]'''. [[ShaggyDogStory None of those will display properly if you try to edit them into this wiki]], but if you enter '''[=&E=]acute;''' (including the ampersand and semicolon) it will display as '''É'''.[[/note]] In addition Irish was not standardised until the 1930s, leading to a wide variation in spelling for names pronounced the same way.