Hello, Thank you for allowing me to ask questions here!

I am American and like to do artwork for friends and family. My children are part Irish from my side, a ways back, but half through their father. As a result, my youngest has an affinity for Irish artwork and such. She is being taught to skateboard by my son, who has already received two skateboards from me with original artwork on them. She has expressed an interest in one of her own. I plan to do the same for my daughter's birthday in a few weeks. Her name is Honey and since it is also an object and an endearment, I thought it should be easy enough to include a Gaelic version of her name into the design, however it seems like it is harder than I realized! I have gotten several different responses on web sites I have found.

Could someone please tell me if Honey is a name or what the translation of it would be as an endearment?

Thanks so much!

Hi, welcome to the forum!

The Irish word for 'honey' is mil.

Mil, however, is not used as a name, nor is it a term of endearment.

So, if you put the word mil on a skateboard, it'll just mean the word 'honey'.

Languages aren't all the same, just because a word is used as a term of endearment in one language doesn't mean it will translate idiomatically into another.

So, that leaves you in a predicament:

Do you want us to give you some options in Irish for terms of endearment?

Or do you want to go with an Irish-phonological rendering of your daughter's name?

i.e. Honaí (CO), or Honaidhe (SL).

Honaí or Honaiḋe

I personally wouldn't go with the second option, as honaí/ honaidhe doesn't mean anything in either Irish or English!

Cian

_________________

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

Thank you. I knew that not all words translate. I have a smattering of Spanish and have realized from working in a prison that even different nationalities of Spanish speakers do not all speak the same language!

Is "Mil" pronounced like the English word "Mill" or is it like "Meal"? Or do the letters each have a different pronunciation?

If I do add that to the artwork, I would like to be able to explain it! Thanks!

You can listen to the pronunciation of the word here -

http://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/mil

Just for your information, the equivalent for the term of endearment 'honey' in Irish would be -

peata beag
muirnín bán
or - aingeal

There are other words that you'd use if you were talking about a beautiful lady or addressing your partner, but that's not exactly what is needed here.

Forget unintelligible "phonological renderings".
At a pinch, you could write "Honey" in traditional Irish script.

In Irish:mil = 'honey' (from bees); milis - 'sweet/honeyed'; milseacht - 'sweetness'.

What do the endearments mean?

Ok, here is my next question. I was looking at the "traditional Irish script" on Google and saw that there is no complete alphabet with capital and lower case letters. So, if I were to write her name as it is "Honey" what would it look like? Does it translate differently in script form from language to language? Or would I write it as "Honey"? For example, if you were to translate a text or conversation, would you say Honey or something else entirely?

Is this what they would call her if she were in Ireland, as An Cionnfhaolach posted? Or would her name remain the same? I have never really thought about it much because my own name may change vowel sounds in other languages but retains the same spelling and basic phonetic structure in most other languages I have run across.

Maybe my efforts towards authenticity are too much. I didn't anticipate this much discussion but I want to get it right.

A term of endearment means words you use with affection, that you would say to your partner or close family members.

Wikpedia have a page on Irish Orthography (that means spelling) where they give an example of what's known as seanchló or old style print, but you can also search the net for - gaelic fonts, if you want to. It quickly becomes quite confusing as there are so many of them and they have evolved over time. You might have noticed that some people on this forum do in fact use seanchló.

She wants to know the literal meaning in English of those Irish endearments you gave.

Of course, silly me - little pet, white little darling (I don't why they say white) and angel. By the way,the letter Y isn't in the Irish alphabet.