In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey gamely tried to pronounce ten Irish names for SportsJOE.ie.
Caoimhe
Ruaidhri
Darragh
Saoirse
Tadhg
Eoghan
Aoife
Niamh
Aisling
Fionn
How well can you do? Answers after the video.
Caoimhe
PRONUNCIATION: kee + va
GENDER: Female
MEANING: From caomh gentle, beautiful, precious. The same root as Kevin, the name has become very popular in Ireland with the original Irish spelling.
Ruaidhri
RONUNCIATION: ro + ree
GENDER: Male
MEANING: From rua + ri meaning red king, great king.
Darragh
PRONUNCIATION: da + ra
GENDER: Male
MEANING: daire fruitful, fertile. It is often used as a girl’s name with the spellings Daire and Dara.
Saoirse
PRONUNCIATION: sear + sha
GENDER: Female
MEANING: Irish word saoirse freedom, liberty. It has only been used since the 1920s and has strong patriotic overtones.
Tadhg
PRONUNCIATION: ti + gue
GENDER: Male
MEANING: Irish name meaning a poet or a philosopher. In one legend, at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 Tadhg Mór (Big Tadhg) O’Kelly is reported to have fought like a wolf dog before he was overcome by the Vikings and killed. When he fell a ferocious animal came from the ocean to protect the dead body of the chieftain until it was retrieved by his O’Kelly kinsmen.
Eoghan
PRONUNCIATION: o + in
GENDER: Male
MEANING: Comes from an old Irish word and means born of the yew tree.
Aoife
PRONUNCIATION: ee + fa
GENDER: Female
MEANING: beautiful, radiant, joyful. Known as the greatest woman warrior in the world, Aoife was the mother of Cuchulainn’s only son, Connlach. Aoife Dearg (Red Aoife) was a daughter of a king of Connacht who had her marriage arranged by St. Patrick himself. In 2003 Aoife was the third most popular Irish girls name for babies in Ireland.
Niamh
PRONUNCIATION: nee + iv or neev
GENDER: Female
MEANING: radiance, lustre, brightness. The daughter of the sea god Manannan she was known as Niamh of the Golden Hair, a beautiful princess riding on a white horse. She fell in love with Fionn’s son Oisin and lived with him in Tir-na-nOg (Land of the Young) where 300 years passed in what seemed like three weeks.
Aisling
PRONUNCIATION: ash + ling
GENDER: Female
MEANING: From aislinge which means a vision or a dream, Aisling is the name given to a popular poetic genre from the 17th and 18th centuries in which Ireland is personified as a beautiful woman in peril.
Fionn
PRONUNCIATION: fin
GENDER: Male
MEANING: Means fair-headed. Fionn Mac Cool, a central character in Irish folklore and mythology lead the warrior band, the Fianna. Fionn was not only incredibly strong but he was also extremely brave, handsome, generous and wise, a wisdom he acquired by touching the Salmon of Knowledge and then sucking his thumb.
