Thanks, all, for the replies! Other languages do have interesting names for animals. Russian was mentioned, дом "dom" meaning "home". The Russians call the bear медведь "medved'", meaning "eater of honey". That was an easy one to figure.

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I'm a beginner, so corrections and suggestions are much appreciated!
"What? First we give a month to black history, now we're blowing seven days on the Irish!"
Pierce, upon hearing about Green Week

It just occurred to me that, to put it into contemporary Scottish speech, damhan-allaidh or damhán alla could be seen as meaning "fierce beastie".

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

And a stag beetle (lucane) is sometimes called a flying deer (un cerf-volant -a kite) or as Loic would say c'hwil krug - I don't know why.

but I wouldn't say like that because in my Breton dialect we say "c'hwil Zant Yann", Saint John's beetle in other places they say "kornoù an diaoul", the Devil's horns

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Spiders don't have to be at all fierce to put the fear of God into me...they just have to be their creepy, 8-legged, little selves!

A friend with a pet tarantula once pointed out to me that the creature wasn't poisonous and wouldn't bite in any case. I told him that the tarantula doesn't need to be poisonous, or even to bite...one touch would give me a heart attack!

Ain't arachnaphobia fun?

On the interesting animal names side, one I've always found intriguing is míolta mór.

Redwolf

Yeah, I thought of míoltóg/míol mhór, as well. Somewhat similar to this.

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Not a native speaker.

Always wait for at least three people to agree on a translation, especially if it’s for something permanent.

My translations are usually GU (Ulster Irish), unless CO (Standard Orthography) is requested.

Tá fóibe na ndamhán alla ar mo mhamaí fosta, fiú amháin nuair a tchí sí pioctúracha do dhamháin alla, cuireann siad iogla orthaí. Cha maith liomsa damháin alla ach an oiread ach ní fóibe atá ormsa le cuidiú Dé.



Míol is an old word that meant "animal", so basically míol mór is simply "a big animal" and míoltóg is a "tiny animal" :-)

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Isn't alla still used as an adjective in Munster to mean wild, with allta being the plural form?

Exactly; hence the parallel.

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Not a native speaker.

Always wait for at least three people to agree on a translation, especially if it’s for something permanent.

My translations are usually GU (Ulster Irish), unless CO (Standard Orthography) is requested.

Lus na magairlí = orchid

So, what's magairlí got to do with the flower - I just don't see it.

Interestingly, there's a connection in English too. Look up 'polyorchid' if you've got the balls to!