Scottish Gaelic personal naming system
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It must be borne in mind that traditional Scottish Gaelic surnames, in the English sense, are not generally in use, at least in colloquial Gaelic, except when speaking of strangers.
It was once traditional for everyone living in a Gaelic speaking district to have a local nickname describing his trade or a physical characteristic, e.g. “Donnchadh reamhar, an saor” (Fat Duncan, the Joiner) etc. Sometimes they are named after the place they lived in last, or were born in, e.g. “An Americanach” (The American) etc. If the person named is of a family long settled in the district he will probably be named after his father, as “Seumas a’ Phiobair” (the piper’s James). Where a person’s mother is a native married to an outsider, he may be named after her, e.g. “Domhnall Ciorstan” (Kirsten’s Donald). Thus a Gaelic student whose friend is plain John MacDonald in the city must not be surprised when he meets him at home to hear his companion spoken of as “Iain Mhurchaidh Dhomhnaill Alasdair”! This means “John [son of] Murdo [son of] Donald [son of] Alistair”, a patronymic. The sole object of Gaelic surnames is to make the identity of the person spoken of as clear as possible through the speaker reminding his hearers by means of the name every time it is mentioned, to whom or where he “belongs”.
Considerable care must be exercised when translating English surnames into Gaelic, for example Donald Black is “Domhnall Mac a’ Ghille dhuibh”. The literal translation, “Domhnall Dubh” (Black Donald) may, if used, prove misleading, for that is more likely to be the local appellation of Donald Cameron (Domhnall Camshron) or Donald Smith (Domhnall Mac a’ Ghobhainn), both of whom have dark hair, than of Donald Black, who may even be fair, and locally known as “Domhnall Bàn”, but more probably as “Domhnall Alasdair” or “Domhnall Iain” etc. “Domhnall dubh” is also a familiar Gaelic nickname for the Devil! (This may be partially because the Gaelic words for devil and demon – “Diabhal” and “Deamhan” bear some resemblance to the name “Domhnall” (Donald).)
[edit] The present situation
The translation of names into Gaelic seems to be becoming less and less common. Conversely the translation of names from Gaelic into English is also less common, and names such as “Mairi” (or “Mhairi”), “Iain”, “Alasdair” etc are not rendered as “Mary”, “John” or “Alexander”. The current rules, if indeed there are any, for name translations are vague and unstandardised. Names of Gaelic origin are sometimes not rendered in the original language by speakers or the media, sometimes because the Gaelic spellings are not widely known, e.g. “McLetchie”, “Caskie”, “Dewar” etc, and where a name of non-Gaelic origin has an equivalent, e.g. “Johnson”, “Bruce” or “Walker” it is decreasingly used.
Occasionally learners will render more unusual names into Gaelic spelling, and they seem to be more zealous in this aspect than native speakers. There is also a tendency for English names to enter Gaelic spelling, when there is already an equivalent, e.g. “Seon” for “John” instead of “Iain” (or Biblical “Eoin”). There is in fact an increasing tendency to retranslate “-son” names in this fashion, e.g.
| English | Traditional Gaelic form | Gaelic loan from English |
| Anderson | MacAinndreas | Andarsan |
| Ferguson | MacFhearghais | Fearghasdan |
| Finlayson | MacFhionnlaigh | Fionlasan |
| Paterson | MacPhàdraig | Padarsan |
| Robertson | MacRaibeirt* | Robasdan |
* Also "MacDhonnchaidh"
This appears to be more common in the Outer Hebrides, than elsewhere.
It is currently unclear where Scottish Gaelic naming is heading, other than an apparent abandonment of dual forms, for a single form in one language or the other.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from “Dwelly’s [Scottish] Gaelic Dictionary” (1911) ((Proper names - appendix), with additions, corrections and updates)
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