Aodh (given name)

Aodh
Gender Masculine
Language(s) Old Irish
Origin
Meaning "fire"
Other names
Pet form(s) Ádhán, Aedán
Derivative(s) Aodh (Ir, SG)
Look up Aodh in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Aodh (/ˈ/; Scottish Gaelic: Áed; Welsh: Aed) is an Irish word of Indo-European origin, originally meaning "fire".[1] Aodh and its many variants are used today in the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages as a given name for both sexes, although feminine forms are less varied and less common. Feminine forms of the name include Aodhnait and Aodhamair. It appears in even more variants as a surname. As a surname, the root or a variant may be prefixed by O, Ó, or Ui (meaning "from" or "descendant of") or Mac or Mc (meaning "son of").

The name was originally related to an Irish god of the underworld. The masculine given name Hugh is a common anglicization, although the names are entirely etymologically unrelated.[2] It was also used in Roman Britain as a native form of the Latin name Dominus.[3]

Pet forms of the name formed with the diminutive -an include Aedán, Ádhán, and Aodhán, names which are sometimes anglicized as Aidan, Aiden, and Edan. A double diminutive is Aodhagán and its modern form Aogán.[2] Máedóc and Mogue and their Welsh form Madog are formed from the affectionate prefix mo- and the separate diminutive -og.[3]

People with the name

Áed
Aedh
Aodh
Aodhagan, Aodhagán, Aodhán, Aogán[4]

See also

References

  1. The modern word aodh meaning 'inflammation' or as a phrase with the Irish word for 'itch' (tochas), giving aodh thochais, 'burning itch' or 'urtication' - (Foclóir Gaeilg-Béarla, eds Tomás de Bhaldraithe, Niall Ó Dónaill, Dublin 1977), is clearly cognate with the original meaning.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Hanks, Patrick; Hodges, Flavia (2006), Hardcastle, Kate, ed., A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford Paperback Reference (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. 6, 126, 341, 399, ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1
  3. 3.0 3.1 Baring-Gould, Sabine & al. The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain, Vol. I, pp. 122 ff. Chas. Clark (London), 1908. Hosted at Archive.org. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.
  4. All are /ˌ.əˈɡɔːn/ or /ˈɡɔːn/. The spelling Aogán reflects the loss of the light dha syllable, pronounced [ə], but the o may be reinterpreted as [ə] even in that spellinɡ.