Irish Translation Forum

JSmith13 wrote:

páidín wrote:if a father surnamed Ó Raghailligh had a daughter she would be Ní Raghailligh and if she married a boy surnamed Mac Giolla Fhaoláin, her surname would change to Mhic Giolla Fhaoláin.

is this all right?

Looks right.

good, because i wasn't sure about the whole name changing thing. in a lot of countries, the woman doesn't change her name. or the maternal and the parental names are hypenated, as in the spanish josé rico lopez-rivera

my name is O'Neal so because i'm not married my name would be Ni Neal? Is that correct?

my girlfriends last name is McDonald and is of Scottish Heritage, but it was originaly MacDonald way back, but she found out that she's Irish too, i was happy!

goneal1017 wrote:my name is O'Neal so because i'm not married my name would be Ni Neal? Is that correct?

Well, kind of. In Irish, "O'Neal" is "Ó Néill," and the maidin feminine form is "Ní Néill" (this is assuming "O'Neal" is your maiden name, and not an ex's name).

Redwolf

Very interesting discussion! What about the common suffixes eg. áin (English rendering "in") or agáin (Engish rendering "igan" etc?

kenailan wrote:Very interesting discussion! What about the common suffixes eg. áin (English rendering "in") or agáin (Engish rendering "igan" etc?

Do you mean as in names such as "Gilligan"? As far as I know, they're just representations of how the names sounded to the English ear, rather than suffixes with specific meanings.

Redwolf

Redwolf wrote:

kenailan wrote:Very interesting discussion! What about the common suffixes eg. áin (English rendering "in") or agáin (Engish rendering "igan" etc?

Do you mean as in names such as "Gilligan"? As far as I know, they're just representations of how the names sounded to the English ear, rather than suffixes with specific meanings.

Redwolf

I tooke such endings to perhaps be diminutives eg Gill = Servant. Gilligan = little Servant?

kenailan wrote:

Redwolf wrote:

kenailan wrote:Very interesting discussion! What about the common suffixes eg. áin (English rendering "in") or agáin (Engish rendering "igan" etc?

Do you mean as in names such as "Gilligan"? As far as I know, they're just representations of how the names sounded to the English ear, rather than suffixes with specific meanings.

Redwolf

I tooke such endings to perhaps be diminutives eg Gill = Servant. Gilligan = little Servant?

Oh, I see. I don't know...it's certainly possible. The older form of the diminutive ending was "án" (as in the name "Aodhán"), so it's quite possible.

Redwolf

goneal1017 wrote:my name is O'Neal so because i'm not married my name would be Ni Neal? Is that correct?

O'Neal comes from the Irish Ó Néill.

I presume for females that becomes

Ní Néill

Although I've never actually heard it.

Redwolf wrote:

kenailan wrote:

Redwolf wrote:

kenailan wrote:Very interesting discussion! What about the common suffixes eg. áin (English rendering "in") or agáin (Engish rendering "igan" etc?

Do you mean as in names such as "Gilligan"? As far as I know, they're just representations of how the names sounded to the English ear, rather than suffixes with specific meanings.

Redwolf

I tooke such endings to perhaps be diminutives eg Gill = Servant. Gilligan = little Servant?

Oh, I see. I don't know...it's certainly possible. The older form of the diminutive ending was "án" (as in the name "Aodhán"), so it's quite possible.

Redwolf

Also very common is the suffix igh or aigh in sur-names. Usually rendered in English as "y" or "ie" would they be possesives