ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 932 http://www.s-gabriel.org/932 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* From: "S Friedemann" 20 Apr 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our help in creating an Irish masculine name meaning "Senan, grandson of the wolf," and you wanted to know if was the right translation. Here is what we have found. The Gaelic word can mean "grandson," but in names it wasn't used that way. Rather, it meant "descendent" more generally. If you want the literal meaning "grandson of the wolf," then you should take a different approach. In order for you to be called "grandson of the wolf," your grandfather would have had to be well-known by the nickname "the wolf," i.e. in Gaelic [1]. (The slash represents an accent over the previous letter). Your father would then have been called , pronounced \mahk in AYL-adh\ (\dh\ has the sound of in ) [2]. (The changes in spelling of are required by Gaelic grammar.) So one way to create the name you want would be call you "son of X, son of the wolf." If, for example, your father was named , which is an Irish name constructed as a diminutive of [2], then you could be called , pronounced \SHAHN-ahn mahk FAYL-ahn vick in AYL-adh\. If you want to leave out your father's name, you could contract this to , "Sena/n son of the son of the wolf". This name says exactly what you want. There is another way you could do it, though. There is a Gaelic given names which literally means "son of [the] wolf" [1,2]. This is a given name, but it could have been given to a boy whose father was called "the wolf". If your father bore this name, you could be or , which are pronounced \SHAHN-ahn mahk vick-KUN\ [3], and \SHAHN-ahn mahk vick-CHEER-eh\. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin -------------------------------------------------------- References: [1] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983). [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [3] The sound of the \U\ is between that of and that of