{"id":387,"date":"2010-08-31T23:14:53","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T23:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=387"},"modified":"2010-09-02T04:19:05","modified_gmt":"2010-09-02T04:19:05","slug":"ainmneacha-ceilteacha-ar-hairicini-fiona-en-route","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/ainmneacha-ceilteacha-ar-hairicini-fiona-en-route\/","title":{"rendered":"Ainmneacha Ceilteacha ar Hairic\u00edn\u00ed (Fiona en route)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a dedicated ainmeola\u00ed<\/strong>, I recently found myself wondering why I couldn\u2019t think of any hurricanes that had Celtic names, even in their anglicized forms.\u00a0 So I decided to look into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reviewing the situation, I see that traditionally hurricanes were named after the saint\u2019s day on which they occurred (which could reopen the door for Celtic-named hurricanes, but again, none come to mind.\u00a0 Hurricane Fiacre?\u00a0 Hurricane Phelimy?).\u00a0 In the 19th<\/sup> century, an Australian meit\u00e9areola\u00ed<\/strong> began giving ainmneacha ban<\/strong> to tropical storms and this laofacht inscne<\/strong> was continued when the U.S. also began naming hurricanes in 1953.\u00a0 The gender bias continued till 1979 in the U.S. when cothromas deiseanna<\/strong> became the practice regarding ainmni\u00fa hairic\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are six lists of 23 hurricane names that are recycled (every six years) and the only opportunities for new names to be added occur when a name is retired, due to its namesake having been particularly deadly, like Frances or Katrina.\u00a0 Apparently the names are supposed to be English, Spanish or French, designated as the \u201cmain\u201d languages in areas of the Atlantic where hurricanes arise.\u00a0 So I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever see a hurricane named \u201cC\u00fachoigr\u00ed\u201d (Peregrine), Giolla Easpaig (Archibald), or Bl\u00e1thnait (Florence), although the English versions of those names would be fair game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But what about any names that are distinctively, or at least thematically, Celtic, albeit in English spelling? \u00a0So, checking the lists (easily available) online, I found that the following had been used: Erin (starting in 2001), Gordon (2000, 2006), Kyle (2002 and 2008), and Oscar (2000, 2006).\u00a0 The last may sound more Scandinavian than Celtic, at first glance, but it is a very very old Irish name, Oscar having been the grandson of the legendary Fionn Mac Cumhaill.\u00a0 There is an Old Norse derivation for this name (asgeirr<\/em>, god-spear) but it is also believed that the name became popular in Scandinavia in honor of Joseph Fran\u00e7ois Oscar Bernadotte (1799-1859), Napoleon\u2019s godson and later King Oscar I of Sweden.\u00a0 Napoleon was known to have been a fan of James Macpherson\u2019s Ossian saga, which includes Oscar, as well as Ossian (Ois\u00edn) and Fingal (Fionn himself) and Napoleon is believed to have picked the name Oscar in tribute to the epic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oscar is spelled the same in Irish and in English, so certainly gives a Celtic slant to the hurricane onamasticon.<\/p>\n

But even more timely and equally straightforward in its spelling is Hurricane Fiona, which approaches America\u2019s Atlantic coast as I write, although apparently it\u2019s been demoted to a stoirm thr\u00f3paiceach<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFiona\u201d is a name whose popularity has skyrocketed in recent years.\u00a0 It\u2019s short, easy to spell, equally applicable to Ireland and Scotland, and evokes Fionn Mac Cumhaill, often seen as a feminine version of his name.\u00a0 But curiously, the name was invented in the 19th<\/sup> century by Scottish writer William Sharp.\u00a0 If it seems surprising that it\u2019s such a recent invention, it\u2019s worth remembering that Pamela, Vanessa and Wendy, among others, are also relatively recent literary coinages, whose origins are easily traceable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One slight change would have to occur to properly spell this name in Irish today \u2013 the \u201co\u201d is long, giving us \u201cFi\u00f3na.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is also an older Irish name, F\u00edne, or F\u00edona (note the different placement of the s\u00edneadh fada<\/strong>), borne by an early abbess of Kildare.\u00a0 Can\u2019t say I\u2019ve ever met anyone whose name was \u201cF\u00edona<\/strong>\u201d as opposed to \u201cFi\u00f3na<\/strong>,\u201d but having written this, I\u2019ll be on the lookout for the distinction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Hurricane Fiona replaced Hurricane Frances (2004), which qualified as deadly enough to be retired.\u00a0 While it\u2019s sad to think of the tragedies that occur before a new name slot opens up in the hurricane lists, it is also interesting to ponder whether another Celtic-based name will be selected before long, and if so, which one.\u00a0 It\u2019s unlikely that the full-fledged Irish spelling (with long marks, etc.) would be used, but it would be nice to see a little more Celtic representation in a listing that includes both the typically American \u201cTeddy\u201d and \u201cSally\u201d and names ranging from Gaston and Pablo to Olga and Odette, representing the wider language pool involved. \u00a0.<\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta\u00ed: ainmeola\u00ed<\/strong>, onomatologist; ban <\/strong>[bahn], of women (possessive plural form); cothromas<\/strong>, equality; deiseanna<\/strong>, opportunities; laofacht<\/strong>, bias<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a dedicated ainmeola\u00ed, I recently found myself wondering why I couldn\u2019t think of any hurricanes that had Celtic names, even in their anglicized forms.\u00a0 So I decided to look into it.\u00a0 Reviewing the situation, I see that traditionally hurricanes were named after the saint\u2019s day on which they occurred (which could reopen the door…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11160,11159,11155,11153,11158,11161,11156,11154,11157],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-celtic-names","tag-fiacre","tag-fiona-2010","tag-hurricane-fiona","tag-hurricane-names","tag-laofacht-inscne","tag-ossian","tag-tropical-storm-fiona","tag-william-sharp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":390,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}