I always liked "Liam" which is William in Irish. But are you looking for male or female names? Or both?įallon is a nice Irish name for a female. ~Kieran's Mummy|||Glenn is very nice Irish name. What do you think?|||I love Saoirse!Īnd I know it doesn't begin with an S but Aoife is also pretty awesome. I really love Irish names starting with S.īut I just seriously love those two. Typical Irish name, why use five letters when nine will do? Shona (Pronounced Show-na|||Cearnaigh, pronounced "Car-ny" I prefer the Fay-lan version, but both are good :) Faolan James is lovely|||Fergus Oengus (although it may be a bit TOO uncommon!)- 'Enn-giss' Look at |||Faolan- 'Fway-lawn' or 'Fay-lan' Person who gives me the best ones I've never heard gets 10 points :]|||Look in the letter you like most There are at least four other words in Irish that mean “to think.” Intrigued? Check back i mblag eile.And I mean names that are uncommon in the U.S not necessarily Ireland. Tá ceithre fhocal eile i nGaeilge ar a laghad a chiallaíonn “to think.” But don’t think that this is the end of the story, however. Like most figurative idioms, the English phrase “a penny for your thoughts” doesn’t really translate into traditional Irish, but the equivalent idea is “ Cad é a bhfuil tú ag smaoineamh air?” (What are you thinking of?).Īch ná bí ag smaoineamh gurb é seo deireadh an scéil, áfach. Of course, if “Sweeney” were in its original form, we’d have “ Smaoinigh an Suibhneach” so we wouldn’t have the rhyme ( An Suibhneach, Mr. O’Flaherty), and “ An Paorach,” as in the proverb, “ Beidh lá eile ag an bPaorach” (Mr. O’Connell / the O’Connell man), “ An Flaitheartach “ (Mr. Smaointeoir : “The Thinker,” probably the best name for Rodin’s famous statue if we had reason to discuss it in Irish.Īnd finally, the rhyming connection between “ smaoinigh” and the surname “Sweeney” has not gone unnoticed, as I recently saw in a young Dubliner’s profile page, “ Smaoinigh An Sweeney.” Here the verb is in the past tense, so the phrase means “Sweeney thought.” The word “ an” (the) here is a carryover from an Irish naming tradition, giving us forms like “ An Conallach,” (Mr. For this particular verb, the past tense looks exactly the same as the command form. Smaoinigh: The past tense form of the same verb, as in “ Smaoinigh sé air sin” (he thought about that). Another example I noticed recently was “ Smaoinigh ar na buntáistí ar fad a bheadh ag do pháistí dá mbeidís dátheangach,” as stated on the website for an organization promoting Irish-English bilingualism for children. Examples: “ Smaoinigh air sin!” or “ Smaoinigh air seo!” It is followed by a form of the preposition “ ar” (literally “on” but here with the sense of “about”), giving us “ air sin” (on that) or “ air seo” (on this). Smaoinigh : think, or reflect, in the “command form,” used to tell someone to think about or reflect upon something. This form is used after the verb “to be” to indicate that the action is in progress. This is the plural of the verbal noun “ smaoineamh.” Yes, Irish verbal nouns usually have plurals AND grammatical gender AND genitive cases, but more on those for blag lá fearthainne (a rainy day blog).Īg smaoineamh : thinking, the act of thinking, as in “ Tá mé ag smaoineamh ar uimhir idir a haon agus a deich,” (I’m thinking of a number between one and ten). Smaointe : You may remember that Enya’s early album Shepherd’s Moon included the song, “ Smaointe” (thoughts, reflections). This is the verbal noun and can serve either as an actual noun or, with “ ag,” to indicate that the action is ongoing. Some speakers don’t pronounce the final –mh at all (SMWEEN-yuh) others pronounce it as a “v” or “oo” (SMWEEN-yuv, SMWEEN-yoo). Fortunately, now all you have to do is click on the WOTD link to hear it (). Transparent Language’s Word of the Day recently featured “ smaoineamh,” a word whose pronunciation has intrigued many of my students over the years.
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