How to spell Michael in Irish?

Janet

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Can anyone confirm how to spell Michael in Irish? I'm pretty sure there's a fada on the "a" but is there also one on the "i"? Mícheál or Micheál?

Thanks!
 
That's what I think too. That's now four out of five people who agree with me so I'll go with that spelling.

Go raibh maith agat!
 
I reckon that it's Mícheál (síne fada on the 'i' and the 'a') and seem to support this.
 
I have as far as I can remember used my English language name (e.g. john smith). Is it an issue to use your Irish name instead of your English name or perfectly acceptable, can you just switch if and when you feel like it?

I remember I registered for my GAA association many moons ago and used my Irish name as I was registered with a Rugby club under my English name and to be playing both sports was a no-no.
 
Would you not have to register your name in Irish with the GAA anyway? I remember our managers having to give the referee teamsheets in Irish when I played underage football (but that was in Donegal where pretty much everyone had the cupla focal).
 
When I woz :p goin to skool there woz a fada on da a but knot on da i. But me english spelin woz bad den too. "m i c he a fada l" :D
 
Janet said:
That's what I think too. That's now four out of five people who agree with me so I'll go with that spelling.

Go raibh maith agat!
Hey Janet - that should be agaibh (or some spelling like that "agat" in plural:D )

Wow - I hated Irish in school - yet it does come back to you, especially when you are abroad and want to say something that you want nobody else to understand. Just like Hector :D . It must have been the way it was beaten into us :D .
 
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hansov said:
Hey Janet - that should be agaibh (or some spelling like that "agat" in plural:D )

.

Well, only one person had replied to me at that stage so......:)
 
Surely the Irish version of a name has no more of a legal status than a nickname or any other AKA.

If your name is John Byrne, you have much right to call yourself Osama bin Laden as you do Sean O'Broinn (assuming I've spelled that right). John Byrne appears on your birth cert so why should you be asked to identify yourself as anything other than your real name?

If someone was to ask you for,say, the Chinese, French or Spanish version of your name, would you feel equally compelled to find out what it was?
 
There's no long "e" as signified by é in the name so that is strictly wrong even if that's how you were named. I still stand by my suggestion of Mícheál.
 
Micheál is the correct spelling. If you put a fada on the 'i' you lengthen it, so it would be pronounced 'mee-hawl' (RTE-style), rather than the correct pronunciation 'me-hawl'...
 
[broken link removed] spells his name with a fada on the 'i' and the 'a'. This FAQ also spells it the same way. I thought that "mee-hawl" was the correct pronunciation although I can't distinguish it from the other phonetic version above anyway.
 
Knowing him as I do, he probably wishes to distinguish himself from lesser mortals, viz.

"...Micheál Ó Súilleabháin?"
"Oh, you mean Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin..."

We just refer to him as Micí Mór around Limerick... ;)


 
damson said:
You could just avoid putting either a dot or a fada on it, like our esteemed Minister (see signature after foreword).
Queenspawn said:
...what call the yolk over the "a" then?
I meant over the I.
Sure we all (except Jildy) are agreed there's a fada on the A.

I'd almost go so far as to say the Minister's lack of a dot or a fada on his I is deliberate and a typical example of political fence-sitting, as he was fed up of people saying "Of course, you haven't spelled your name the correct Irish way" whichever way he wrote it. And that would never do. But maybe that's just cynicism on my part.
 
ClubMan said:
Wikipedia is also usually reliable.
Usually, but not always, being assembled as it is by voluntary/non-reviewed contributors.

I've a number of pedantic Gaeilgeoir colleagues - the type that eschew 0' in favour of Ó, etc. - and they all write 'Micheál'.

P.S. @damson: if you put a fada on the 'i' and not the 'a', it's pronounced 'mee-hal'. Even RTE newsreaders haven't done that ...yet!
 
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