(le Róislín)

Having delved a bit into some of the extended Kennedy family lineage, I thought it might be suimiúil to look into the sloinne itself, especially since its meaning seems to belie the family’s classic dathúlacht (good looks).  How’s that for a mid-blog cliffhanger?

As you may already know, the Ó part of the name means “grandson” or “descendant,” although it is not the everyday word for “grandson,” which was, you remember from previous blogs (right?), a compound of “gar” and “mac.”  I’ll leave you to combine those two words in the correct order and do any necessary mionchoigeartú (fine-tuning).  You can see the answer below. 

So back to “Cinnéide.”  It’s often translated as “ugly head.” 

Well, we have “cinn,” which is a form of “ceann” (head).  Although “cinn” can be the plural or possessive, here the vowels have probably changed to “slender” (i) since “head” is being added to the element “éide,” which begins with a slender vowel (e).  Remember that “e” and “i” are the two slender vowels (gutaí caola) and can be paired together on either side of a consonant.  Do you remember the gutaí leathana?  If not, see below, although there are really only three left to choose from in Irish! 

As for “ugly,” and I do hope that none of this is taken too personally, the ordinary word for “ugly” in Irish is NOT “éide” or any variation thereof.  Fortunately!  The most common  word is “gránna” and, of course, the Irish can wax poetic with comhchiallaigh such as “míofar” (ugly, ill-favored), neimhdheas (ugly, unbeautiful, and, if I do say so myself, on the obscure/archaic side), and do-mhaiseach (ugly, unsightly, unseemly).  Now we enter what I consider the ambiguous realm of surname meanings, and the “éide” part can either be interpreted as “helmed” [i.e. helmeted] related to “éide” (uniform, widely used in military terminology) or “éidigh” (unseemly).  So, for the ciall, “grandson of the person whose head is ‘uniformed,’ ‘helmed,’ ‘armored,’ or just plain ‘ugly’.”  But, ná maraigh an teachtaire, le do thoil, just elucidating.  Slan go fóill — Róislín

Freagraí: garmhac [gahr-wahk] grandson.  Gutaí leathana: a, o, u