The Names

Mark and I both have an Irish heritage, and Mark also has Scottish blood. (And still no red-headed babies.) All of our kids have names of Gaelic origin. No we didn't make any of them up, and no we didn't make up the spellings. And yes, I do think it will be cool one day when my son's at RenFaire wearing a kilt and introducing himself as, "Seamus Potter, and this is my brother, Hamish."

Diarmuid
pronounced "deer + mid"
Means "without enemy." The name of early kings, legendary heroes and saints, Diarmuid was the lover of Grainne and the most beloved of that warrior band, the Fianna. Grainne, as the daughter of Cormac Mac Airt, the High King of Tara, was betrothed to a much older man, the legendary Fionn Mac Cool. When Grainne saw Fionn at the wedding banquet she realised he "was not for her" and put a "geis," a spell, on his nephew, Diarmuid, to run away with her. For sixteen years the lovers were forced to roam the countryside, all the time knowing that they were being constantly pursued by the furious Fionn. Each night they made a fresh bed in a sheltered spot and legend has it that these beds can still be seen today in many remote places. -- Baby Names of Ireland

Aisling
pronounced "ash + ling"
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. A very popular name in Ireland now. -- Baby Names of Ireland

Sinead
pronounced "shin + aid"
Irish form of Jane. "God is gracious." -- Baby Names of Ireland

Hamish
pronounced "hay + mish"
Scottish form of James. The supplanter. The middle child in the popular comic strip Baby Blues is named Hamish. -- Baby Name Network

Seamus
pronounced "shay + muss"
The Irish version of James. Many well-known Irishmen have been called Seamus including the 1995 Nobel poet laureate Seamus Heaney. The Nobel prize in Literature was awarded for his "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." -- Baby Names of Ireland

Aoghdan
pronounced "aid + an"
A diminutive form of the name Aed meaning "fire" and would imply "born of fire." It became a popular name in honour of St. Aidan of Iona (c. 630 AD) who founded a famous monastery on the island of Lindisfarne which he used as a base to evangalize the North of England. In art Aidan is usually represented as a stag, a reference to the legend that he saved a deer that was being hunted by making it invisible. -- Baby Names of Ireland

Aryanna
pronounced "air + ee + ah + na"
Variation on the Welsh name Ariene meaning "silvery." -- Baby Name Network

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