If anyone knows, please let me know. I need to know how to say it as well.

~Meg

Puppy is coileán in Irish. It's pronounced (roughly) KOL-awn.

Phós cara liom cainteoir dúchais na Gaeilge, fear a thug "the puh-pwee" ar a madadh nua. Caithfidh consan a bheith caol nó leathan, ar ndóigh, agus shocraigh sé ina intinn féin gur leathan atá an dá "p" san fhocal sin.

Thank you so much!

~Meg

Is maith liom "puh-pwee". :-) Agus má tá an puh-pwee an-bheag, is féidir an focal dúchasach a dhéanamh níos bige fós: coileáinín. Tá focal deas eile ann a théann i bhfad siar, ach nach n-úsáidtear go minic anois, mar atá "cana".

Beannachtaí an Fourth of July duit, a Sheosaimh!

I understand that the Irish surname ' Ó Coileán ' is Anglicised as ' Collins '. Is this the same word that is given above for a puppy and is there a separate English surname ' Collins ' that has no connection with the Irish?

Yes, that's the usual way that the surname Ó Coileán comes out as in English. Collins is a pre-existing surname in England -- that's how the 's' came about. A handful of Collins's in Ireland may have gotten the name from an English forebear but normally it is a rendition of Ó Coileáin. Cullane is another less common attempt to render it into English.

(Ó) Coileáin is the same word as "coileán" puppy (or "whelp" as MacLysaght puts it.)