Irish Translation Forum

Hello - We're trying to find a name for our new puppy. He's an 8 week old Border Collie and he's almost completely white, with a black patch over each eye. He looks a bit like Charlie Brown in his lame Hallowe'en costume: a sheet with two rough-cut holes for the eyes.

A friend suggested the two words above, after considering dovens of words for ghost, spirit, apparition, etc. He claims these both loosely translate to "hobgoblin", which is close. Bocán SOUNDS better than any of the other possibilities (so far), but I awant to be sure about the translation.

Also, WIDE open to other suggestions, but please include english translation and pronunciation.

Thanks!

Russell

Yes Bocán means hopgoblin- as does boccánach(old irish) see this extract from McBain's Scottish dictionary



bòcan
hobgoblin, Irish bocán, Early Irish boccánach. With these are connected Welsh bwg (bwci, Cornish bucca, borrowed from Middle English?), English bug, bugbear, bogie; the relationship is not clear (Murray). For Gadelic a stem bukko-, from bug-ko-, would do, allied possibly to Norse púki, a Puck, Anglo-Saxon puca, larbula. boc-sithe, apparition, ghost (Perth: Wh.).
bochail

You could call him

CÚBÁN

Koobawn

WhiteDog

Then again the black eyes seem to be the feature.
Unfortunately the Irish for Black Eyes has 4 syllables

Súile Dubha

Sule-ah Dova

S'pose you could get away with Black Eye (like Hawk Eye)

Súildubh

Suledove

How about the word for raccoon in Irish? Sorry, I couldn't find it in my dictionary. Or the word for mask: folaigh...not sure if this one is right since it means hide. Is there another word in Irish for mask, Pól?

Slán,

Patrice

Masc is the Irish word for mask as in this context.

Raccoon is racún

I think they are both too close to the English to be cute names for this little pup.

I like Súildubh, myself. You may find yourself having to spell it everytime you have to go to take the little guy to the vet.

If he reminds you of Charlie Brown, you might want to consider one variation of "Charles" -
Cathal (pronunciation: CA-hal) meaning "Battle-mighty"

Go raibh maith agat for the translations Deb! Tá an ceart agat. The words were too close to English.


Slán,

Patrice