Scottish Gaelic name

This layer can be broadly split into three main types:[1]

• descriptive names (nouns or adjectives), e.g. Fionn "fair, bright", Art "bear"
• old compounds (names which had fused to the extent of now being opaque); e.g., Dòmhnall "Donald" (*Dumnoualos "world strength"), Murchadh "Murdo" (*Moricatus "sea battle")
• compounds, e.g. Donn-slèibhe "Dunlevy" ("brown one of the mountain"), Gille Chrìost "Gilchrist" ("servant of Christ")

The first two categories were no longer productive for the most part towards the end of the Old Irish period but the last type persisted, reinforced by the coinage of ecclesiastical names following Christianization.[1]

Quite a number of names still common hail from the period of Norse contact:[1][2]

• Somhairle < Sumarliðr
• Tormod < Þórmóðr
• Torcuil < Þórkell, Þórketill
• Ìomhar < Ívarr

Names from this layer include:[1][2]

• Sìleas < Giles

Scots names which have been borrowed into Gaelic include:[1][2]

• Eairrdsidh < Archie

Names which were borrowed from Latin include:[2]

• Pàdraig < Patricius
• Sìle < Caecilia

A fair number of Gaelic names were borrowed into English or Scots at different periods (e.g. Kenneth, Duncan, Donald, Malcolm, Calum, Lachlan, Alasdair, Iain, Eilidh), although it can sometimes be difficult to tell if the donor language was Irish or Scottish Gaelic (e.g. Deirdre, Rory, Kennedy, Bridget/Bride, Aiden). On occasion, the same name was borrowed more than once due to misinterpretation of Gaelic morphology. For example, the names Hamish and Mhairi /ˈvɑːri/ are derived from Gaelic Seumas [ˈʃeːməs̪] and Màiri [ˈmaːɾʲɪ] but rather than borrowing the root forms, the English/Scots forms are based on the Gaelic vocative case forms Sheumais [ˈheːmɪʃ] and Mhàiri [ˈvaːɾʲɪ].

Some names which did not acquire currency outside the Gaelic-speaking world were roughly transliterated into English, such as Gorm(sh)uil which is often rendered as "Gormelia".

Others with no cognate were often equated with English/Scots names which bore some similarity to the Gaelic name in order to obtain "English equivalents". This includes Oighrig which was equated with Euphemia or Henrietta, Dìorbhail with Dorothy, Beathag with Rebecca or Sophie.

Patronymic surnames for men feature either the word mac "son" (e.g. MacDhòmhnaill, lit. son of Donald) or the nominalizing suffix -ach (e.g. Dòmhnallach). In the case of women, the word nic is used, a shortening of the full phrase nighean mhic "daughter of the son of").[3][lower-alpha 1] Various other morphological changes (such as lenition or slenderization) may apply in Gaelic, so the surname MacDonald for example may appear as MacDhòmhnaill, MhacDhòmhnaill, MhicDhòmhnaill, NicDhòmhnaill depending on the grammatical context.

In Classical Gaelic culture, clans could also feature the word ua (alt. ó) "grandchild, descendant" (spelled ogha /oə/ in Modern Gaelic), e.g. Ua Dhuibhne "Duibhne's descendant", the original surname of the Campbells (Duibhne was a Celtic goddess). In speaking, ua/ó in names became reduced to [ə], as happened also in Northern Irish and Manx, and disappeared from Anglicised forms. With the break-up of Classical Gaelic culture, ua/ó disappeared from Scottish surnames, sometimes replaced by mac.

As a result of misspellings, one Gaelic surname often corresponds to numerous English/Scots forms, e.g. MacDhonnchaidh "son of Duncan" may appear as: Donagh(y), Donnagh, Dono(u)gh, MacConachie, MacConachy, MacConaghy, MacConchy, MacConechie, MacConkey, MacConnachie, MacConnechie, MacConnichie, MacConochie, MacConoughy, MacDona, MacDonachie, MacDonachy, MacDonaghy, MacDonaugh, MacDonnach, MacDonnagh, MacDonnoghie, MacDonogh, MacDonoghue, MacDonough, MacDunphy, MacKonochie, MacOnachie, MacOnechy, MacOnochie, Donohue or Donohoe (ignoring the Mac/Mc variation).

Scottish Gaelic does not put a space between the Mac/Nic and the second element, whereas in Irish, there is a space:[5][6]

• Caitrìona na h-Aonar ("Catriona on her own"), a woman who enjoyed doing everything on her own[8]

• An t-Arcach ("The Orcadian"), a man who used to fish around the Orkney Islands in his youth[8]
• Bliadhnach Phabaigh ("Pabbay yearling"), a woman who had been a year old when the Isle of Pabbay was cleared of people[9]

• Calum Seòladair ("Calum Sailor"), an unusual name for a woman who was in the habit of wearing a sailor's cap[10]
• Clag a' Bhaile ("The town bell"), a man with a very loud voice[11]

• Ailean Còcaire ("Alan the cook"), a man who was employed at one time as the cook at Ormacleit Castle[12]
• Aonghas a' Bhancair ("Angus the banker"), a man who was employed in a bank in Nova Scotia[8]
• Donchadh Clachair ("Duncan the stonemason" but always presented in English as the literal translation, "Duncan Stoner"), a known 19th and 20th century resident of Achadh an Droighinn/Auchindrain township in Argyll, Scotland: used for Duncan Munro, d. 1937.
• Domnhall Rothach ("Donald on wheels"), used in Argyll in the 1920s to describe a Donald MacCallum who ran a mobile grocer's shop in a van

• Bodach a' Chnatain ("The old man of the cold")[13]
• Calum na Coise ("Calum of the leg"), a man who had a short leg[10]
• Dòmhnall na Cluaise ("Donald of the ear"), a man who is said to have lost an ear in a fight[12]
• Raibeart Bhan ("Fair Robert"), a man called Robert with light-coloured hair

• An Caillteanach ("The lost one"), a man who had become lost, causing the entire village to spend the night looking for him[14]
• Ìomhair a' Bhogha Mhaide ("Ivor of the wooden bow"), a renowned archer and one time resident of Pabay[13]
• Bell a' Phuill ("Bella who lives by the muddy place"), used for Isabella McCallum (1822–1915) of Achadh an Droighinn/Auchindrain township in Argyll, Scotland: her house was close to the ford where the cattle crossed the burn