Aonghus (given name)

Aonghus
Gender Masculine
Language(s) Scottish Gaelic
Other names
Variant form(s) Aonghas
Pet form(s) Angaidh
Cognate(s) Aengus
Anglicisation(s) Angus
See also Angie

Aonghas is a masculine given name in Scottish Gaelic. It is composed of Celtic elements meaning "one", and "choice". A variant spelling of the Scottish Gaelic name is Aonghus. The Irish form of the Scottish Gaelic names is Aengus. A pet form of the Scottish Gaelic names is Angaidh, which is represented in English as Angie, pronounced "an-ghee".[1]

The earliest form of the given name Angus, and its cognates, occurs in Adomnán's Vita Columbae (English: "Life of Columba") as Oinogusius, Oinogussius. This name likely refers to a Pictish king whose name is recorded variously as Onnust, Hungus.[1] According to historian Alex Woolf, the early Gaelic form of the name, Oengus, was borrowed from the British Pictish Onuist, which appears in British as Ungust. Woolf noted that these names are all derived from the Celtic *Oinogustos.[2] Linguist John Kneen derived this name from two Celtic elements the following way: *Oino-gustos, meaning "one-choice".[3] Woolf also stated that between about AD 350 and AD 660, the Insular Celtic dialects underwent changes which included the loss of the final syllables and unstressed vowels, which affected *Oinogustos thus: *Oinogustos.[4]

People with the given name

References

  1. ^ a b Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006), A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford Paperback Reference (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 16, 341, 399, 400, ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1 
  2. ^ Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789-1070, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. xiv, 330, ISBN 9780748612338 
  3. ^ "Christian Names". www.isle-of-man.com. http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/pn1937/p001.htm. Retrieved 1 October 2010.  which is a transcription of Kneen, J.J. (1937). The Personal Names of the Isle of Man. Oxford University Press. 
  4. ^ Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789-1070, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, p. 62, ISBN 9780748612338