Irish Translation Forum

eazyirish · "New Arrival" Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

I am getting tattoos of my kids names, Rylee and Aidan. I wanted to tie in something to represent my Irish Heritage so I was thinking either spelling their names in Gaelic or implementing their name translation. Can you guys help with the spelling and translation?

Thanks in advance

Aibigéal

Well, "Riley" (I assume it's just a different spelling?) is a surname in Irish: Ó Raghallaigh for a man, Uí Raghallaigh or Ní Raghallaigh for a woman (depending whether it's her married or maiden name.) It isn't used as a first name nowadays - obviously there was an original (male) Raghallach at some point though!
If you wanted to make a girl's name out of it, the closest you could get would probably be something like Raghallaichín (which would be anglicized "Rylikeen" or some such.) That's not an existing name though, just something I made up. The bottom line is that "Rylee" or "Riley" as a girl's name doesn't have an Irish equivalent.

"Aidan" is an anglicized form of Aodhán. Don't forget the accent!

Note, though, that even when an Irish equivalent does exist there's no obligation to use it. Some Irish people choose to go by the English form of their names exclusively, some exclusively by the Irish form, and some switch forms depending on which language they're speaking. It really depends on what the person's own practice is. In general I wouldn't translate a name unless I knew that the bearer also used the Irish form.

Aibigéal
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eazyirish · "New Arrival" Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

Thanks for the information. I should have clarified, but I have a daughter with the name Rylee. I spelled it the way I did because she is a girl. I appreciate the information though.

Irish Translation Forum

Tattoo: Name translation and Gaelic spelling

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