Gaelic (help me name the bairnie!)

[Squeaky McMurdo]

So we haven't thought of names yet and I'm 34 weeks along!

As our daughter's middle name is Aibrean (after her grandmother April) I thought I would look to some of you Gaelic speakers for inspiration on names that are forms of Cary (or related words like carry, lift, hold, ect) or Lynn (or that contain "lin")

No, I don't know what I'm having. It's a surprise.

Other names that if they could be Gaelicized (Gaelicified?) I wouldn't mind naming a child after would be my husband James David, and myself Chelsea Louella.

--Chelsea McMurdo--

[The Barry]

You'll find that a lot of contemporary names are anglicized forms of Gaelic names. Take mine, which is fairly simple: Barry is the English's bastardization of the Gaelic Barrie, which is probably a later derivative of some earlier Gaelic name.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Hi Chelsea. The Gaelic form of the name Cary is Ciardha, a derrivitive of Ciar, meaning "dark" (especially appropriate for someone who is dark haired). The Gaelic form of Lynn is spelled Linn and means "waterfall"

Actually, I think a closer translation of "linn" is "pool" as in Dark (or Black) Pool, or Dublin.

[LadyGriffin]

Kirowyn, I am sure I am messing up the spelling, is welsh for a white goddess or something like that. I saw a friend this weekend and her daughter was named Kirowyn. She had to explain how to pronounce her name and the background behind it.

I thought it was very musical and a great name!

Julie

[slohairt]

So we haven't thought of names yet and I'm 34 weeks along!

As our daughter's middle name is Aibrean (after her grandmother April) I thought I would look to some of you Gaelic speakers for inspiration on names that are forms of Cary (or related words like carry, lift, hold, ect) or Lynn (or that contain "lin")

No, I don't know what I'm having. It's a surprise.

Other names that if they could be Gaelicized (Gaelicified?) I wouldn't mind naming a child after would be my husband James David, and myself Chelsea Louella.

--Chelsea McMurdo--

Hi Chelsea,

The Irish form of James David would be Séamas Daibhid (pronounced SHAME-US DAV-IT), and the Scottish Gaelic would be Seumas Daibhidh (pronounced SHAME-US DAV-EE)

[Squeaky McMurdo]

The Gaelic form of the name Cary is Ciardha

Cerridwen

Kirowyn

Pronunciations?

[wvpiper]

Just do a web search for 'gaelic baby names'
That's what we did

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I did, and came up with a couple with "car" or "lin" in them that I kind of like, but would rather name the baby after his/her grandpa Cary Lynn. I kept finding referances that "Cary" was derived from a Gaelic word for "love" but couldn't find what that word is.

[Old Hippie]

My daughter was an extraordinarily active baby who spent a lot of time playing football and tapdancing during gestation.

We named her after that exhibition of vigourous dancing, the ceilidh. Knowing that NOBODY would be able to pronounce it, we left the "dh" off to make it Ceili.

Of course, this was complicated by two things:

1. 60 years from now there's gonna be a lot of old ladies named "Kaylee," "Kaylie," "Caylee" or some other variant sitting in nursing homes. We inadvertantly tapped the trend. Shoulda named her "Ethel Louise."

2. She was born the year Whoopi Goldberg played in "The Color Purple." I spent a while correcting people that it wasn't "SEE-lee."

Despite it all, and without much prompting from her father, she's grown up to be a normal adult.

I'd say to minimize complications, write out the name and hand it to a random person. See if they can pronounce it. You know every teacher, nurse or public official for the rest of his/her life is going to have to read it off in public. I get a little sensitive about that myself because my name should be pronounced with an "sh" sound at the beginning rather than the hard "ch."

:ootd:

[TheKiltedWonder]

What about Aisling or Aislinn -- that'd get your "lin" in. It's means something like "dream", I guess..daydreaming is "aislingeacht".

Note: the "i" next to the "s" will make a "sh" sound (a voiceless, alveolar fricative -- to be a know-it-all). Therefore, the name's pronounced more like Ashling or Ashlynn depending.