vaerov wrote:
To confirm, "Is mise Niamh Nic Fhionghuine, bean Aedan Ui Néill" is Irish for "My name is Niamh O'Neal, born McKinnon." Did I get this right?
Aedan is a variant of the name Aidan, which in Irish has a form of
Aodhán, genitive
Aodháin, so:
(Is mise) Niamh Nic Fhionghuine, bean Aodháin Uí Néill (the í in
Uí should have acute above it), and it literally means: (I am) Niamh McKinnon, wife of Aedan O’Neal.
Aodhán, btw,
according to Wikipedia is a pet name form of
Aodh (anglicized as
Hugh) and
one Aodh Ó Néill (Hugh O’Neill) was one of the most prominent Gaelic lords fighting against the Tudor conquest of Ireland at the end of 16th century.
vaerov wrote:
I've done research (as much as I could, using google
), and it appears highborn women took their husbands' names in medieval Gaelic Ireland. Not to confuse matters further, my understanding is that the proper anglicized naming convention for an unmarried woman's name went something like this: Neave ingen Cormac McKinnon (Cormac being her father). Does that sound right?
ingen is Old Irish spelling, and probably anglicization, of a word
inghean or in modern spelling
iníon ‘daughter’. Neave ingen Cormac McKinnon thus would be anglicization of
Niamh iníon Chormac Mhic Fhionghuine ‘Neave, Cormac McKinnon’s daughter’. The
Nic in
Niamh Nic Fhionghuine is a contraction of
iníon Mhic … (daughter of Mac…, lit. daughter of a son of…).
vaerov wrote:
Lastly, is McKinnon an anglicized version of Nic Fhionghuine? I looked up "Fhionghuine," and it's translated as "Phoenix." I'm shooting for the last name to have the connotation of "love" or "beloved." Am I on the right track with McKinnon?
It is anglicized version of a
Scottish Gaelic clan surname MacFhionghain, meaning ‘son(s) [= descendants] of Fionghan’, Fionghan being modern Scottish Gaelic spelling of the name of some historical clan’s chieftain, supposedly known to Wikipedia as
Findanus (also called Fingon, or Findan). What’s the origin or the meaning of the name, I have no idea.
Fionghuine and
Fionghun are alternative forms of the names found in Irish,
Fhionghuin and
Fhionghuine are the genitive of the name (that is, the form meaning ‘Fionghuine’s’, ‘of Fionghuine’), thus Irish version is
Mac Fhionghuine. Daughter of a man named
Mac Fhionghuine would be called ‘dauther of the descendant of Fionghun’:
Nic Fhionghuine, while wife thereof would be
[bean] Mhic Fhionghuine.
EDIT: there is a
pretty good explanation how traditional Irish surnames work on Gramadach na Gaeilge (Irish language grammar) on nualeargais.ie.
EDIT2:
Wikipedia claims the name Fionghuine means ‘fair-born’ (as in born fair-haired).
Thank you once again for all the details and for the additional sources! I appreciate this tremendously!