Greetings to all. Thanks in advance for any help received. I'm getting a tattoo to commemorate my family. I attempted to get Irish Gaelic versions of the names and hope I got close enough to avoid being laughed at.

This is what I'm trying to get:
English:

Irish:



Anyone care to tell me how bad I messed it up?

~Conan

Not badly at all, except you forgot the dot over the "s" in "saol" (it would be "shaol" in modern writing, but since you're using dots, that's what you'll want).

That said, modern conventions to the contrary, "Sorcha" is not "Irish for Sarah." The names are unrelated. It's just that Irish girls named "Sorcha" were forced to change their names to "Sarah" in the national schools under British rule (you couldn't attend school if you had an Irish name, so they were changed, and if an Irish name didn't have an English cognate, the schoolmasters shoe-horned them into the closest "English" name they could think of).

It's also not generally done to "Irishize" someone's given name unless they actually use/used the Irish form. Unless these people actually use Irish forms of their names (and especially as only two of them have true Irish forms), I'd keep them as "Kerry," "Sarah," "Kristiona," "Ryan," and "Andrea."

Redwolf

Thank you very much! So this in what you suggest?

I will wait for further confirmation but I'm pretty happy I got my attempt that close. Unfortunately the phrases are too long to render into Ogham for the tattoo so I will just have to go with a nice Gaelic font

~Conan

Ya, as Redwolf was saying names aren't usually translated. Unless you attend a Gaelscoil where Peter will henceforth be called Peadair !

If your going with the poncanna i.e. the little dots that stand for séimhithe why don't you just have it in the traditional Irish font but keep the modern standardised spelling as the words will be shorter and therefore the tatoo less painful and cheaper?

M’aṫair, mo laoċ: Kerry
Mo ġra, mo ḃean ċéile: Sarah/ Sorċa*
Mo ċlann, mo ṡaol: Crístíona, Riain* /Ryan & Aindréa


*If your wife is named sorcha it means light/ bright
* I have only ever seen Ryan as Riain, Rían is probably correct too, and looks like an older spelling of it.

Cian

[b]Wait for more input![/b]

Crossed with ConanLlyod

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Thanks for your input, I like your idea that leads to less pain and cost! Do you have a link to where I can get that font? Also, did you mean to switch the y & o in my last name? :-)

~Conan

Oh, and would anyone be able to help me with a pronounciation guide for the tattoo? I don't want to look like an idiot when asked what it says.

M’aṫair, mo laoċ: Kerry
Mo ġra, mo ḃean ċéile: Sarah
Mo ċlann, mo ṡaol: Crístíona, Riain & Aindréa

Thanks again for all the help!

~Conan

Nope I didn't mean to do that it was a slip of the keyboard. Why? Do you have some story about it being spelled Llyod?

Is Lloyd not originally a Welsh name?

You can use the font here on this forum;

When you are writing a reply, look up to where you have the options to place the font in bold, italics, underline etc... move along to the right until you see font- click on the drop down. Then highlight what you want to write in the traditional script and chose the "Bunchló Ársa"- second option. You will have to write your puncanna as ṫ though because although it can read the poncanna, if you write "th" it will just give you a stylist "th". This is how I do it.

You can also download the font from somewhere, Breandán mentioned it to me, but it didn't work on my laptop.

Good job by the way with the Irish!

Cian

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Aye, Lloyd is Welsh in origin. I was making sure I was not seeing a reference to an archaic form of my name :-) I see folk spell it that way so often and I've never understood how so many folk hear an "oy" sound and choose to spell it "yo"

No worries, and I really do appreciate the help. I'll hunt for the font to add it to my PC. I'll need to be able to provide the tattooist an image of what I want, so I'd like to be able to print it in different sizes. I'm hoping to be able to place it on the inside of my upper forearm.

~Conan

No bother , but wait for three to confirm, especially the (GC) lads!

Just for pig iron, here is what you have using the older spelling i.e. pre-1940s, there's only really 2 changes;

M’aṫair, mo laoċ: Kerry
Mo ġraḋ, mo ḃean ċéile: Sarah/ Sorċa*
Mo ċlann, mo ṡaoġal: Crístíona, Riain* /Ryan & Aindréa

Cian

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

I'm not certain, but I think the reason you so often see it as "Ríain" is because you're seeing in the genitive as part of the surname "Ó Ríain." I'm pretty sure that, as a standalone name, it's just "Rían." But wait for others to weigh in.

To be honest, I wouldn't "Irishize" any of those names unless those people actually use those Irish forms.

Redwolf