Good Morning,
My husband and I are expecting our 1st child in few weeks, and are trying to pick out names as we want to honor his Irish heritage. I came across a name: Samaire, which supposedly has Irish Gaelic roots, however, I have not been able to verify this anywhere! Apparently, the meanings are supposed to be 'dawning sun' or 'birth of new life'--can anyone tell me if this is in fact true?

If not, what are the Irish Gaelic words that provide these meanings? Also, what's the word for 'dream'?

Thank you all for your time and attention.
I look forward to the wisdom you can share with me.

D. Shah

Ironically, there's an Irish female name that means "dream", and it's Aisling.

As for Samaire, I've never heard the name, but the spelling of it is sound enough to be Irish.

I'm sure others can suggest suitable names, and best of luck to you and your husband, hope yiz a very happy.

I've never heard Samaire either;

There is a quote here
movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=302163

which attributes it to Irish; but I doubt it.

Sun is Grian in Irish;

I have some name booksat home & will do some quick checking. Names tend to be based on older language.

See also here:
http://www.behindthename.com/bb/arcview.php?id=67840&board=gen

This is more of a personal recommendation more than anything, but I've always found names which are actual words in a language to be quite gawdy. There are a handful of accepted ones such as "Autumn, Mark, Summer", but in general they're a bit tacky, which is why I would suggest against naming the child something so direct as "Grian". I knew a girl once called Treasure and everyone found it to be a strange name. And of course stay clear of the abomination of all abominations: Coleen.

But then again you might like this kinda stuff, so it's up to you.

Thank you all for the feedback so far...I had a feeling this wasn't a name with a true meaning. It would have been devastating to think we had named our child thinking her name had a particular meaning, only to find out it's made-up.

I came across 2 other words that had nice meanings, however I don't know how to pronounce them:

sàmhach
a. quiet, still, calm, peaceful
sàmhchair
nf. quietness, tranquility

Would these words be suitable names, or would it be weird b/c they are actual words, rather than names??

Thanks again for your help!

Aonghus and Fear_na_mbróg,

I came across this link in my online searches: http://www.ucc.ie:8080/cocoon/doi/locus/S which is a site managed by the University College Cork. If you scroll down, there are 2 entries: sámair and samáir. However, I don't even want to pretend I understand how you are supposed to read these entries. Can you make any sense of them, and if so, does it provide any insight or meaning to the words?

Thanks again!

Samaire -such a name would be highly liable to lenite into samhaire. The names in the link above are river names and I dont think they are used anymore.

If anyone has the book 'Gaelic Personal Names' they can look it up. The name as it stands would never be very meaningful as it is not used now, its form would be old Irish, it might be an old word, but in the genitive etc

Anyway, naming a baby of a name that might be language X but one is not sure, means that one is saying more about ones own culture than anything the name has to offer. At that remove, make up a name, and make up a meaning, since there is no difference

If you scroll up, you see the title:

Onomasticon Goedelicum
locorum et tribuum Hiberniae et Scotiae
An index, with identifications, to the Gaelic names of places and tribes

As BRN says, the two names given are River names, and there is no derivations.

The entries are of references to sources for the name, see http://www.ucc.ie:8080/cocoon/doi/locus?section=N1007F

(Thanks for finding this link btw - I had it but lost it!)

quote:

The names in the link above are river names and I dont think they are used anymore.

Which then begs the questions, what do the rivers' names mean? For example, "Pacific" is the name of an ocean, but the ocean gets its name from being considered "peaceful."

Maybe we'd have to go back to Old Irish to get the answer.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20060514/ai_n16366755

" 1. Tell us about your name.

My first name is Gaelic and means "dawning sun." It's pronounced Sah-mee-rah. My dad read "Conan the Barbarian" when my mom was pregnant with me. That's where he got my name. The only bad thing is people still can't pronounce it and it's hard to say. It was torture growing up. My family moved from city to city. My name was constantly massacred."

Does not look too promising. Conan, now that's a real Irish name...

Is dóigh gur leagan éigin den ainm Albanach "Somhairle" atá ann, muna glanbhotún é!

Anglicized form of the Old Norse name Somarliðr meaning "summer traveller". This was the name of a 12th-century Scottish warlord who created a kingdom on the Scottish islands.

Agus an file is fearr sa Ghaeilge le linn an 20ú Aois: Somhairle Mac Gill Eain

http://www.sorleymaclean.org/bardachd/c.htm

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaire_Armstrong

quote:

Her first name, pronounced ... Sa-mee-rah is Gaelic. The first 3 months of her life her parents pronounced her name Sam-air, until they met a Gaelic man who told them it was properly pronounced Sa-mee-rah.

I agree with BRN,
But just have a look; When I saw "Samaire" I at once thought of "Samara" which I heard all throughout my childhood and which means "sandal" (That's a Kenyan word and I lived there for some years, when a little boy) .
On the other hand, "Conan" which I think is a very beautiful name , full of courage and virility, is very near (in writing and pronouncing) a very rude word in french ; and I never heard a french kid or adult having such a name in France. That wouldn't be possible!
So... Which nationality is this kid gonna be ? Are his or her parents American people? And, furthermore, where is he or she going to live ?
But, I bet in his or her life, maybe, he or she will go somewhere else in the world and settle down in Europe or Asia . So... the problem 'll still be there .
In my family where there are 4 nationalities, some of my cousins have got "funny names" ; but we respect one another and all goes on well .... Nevertheless, sometimes, if there is a conflict or something, one of us would take advantage of a "weird" name and insists upon its different meanings... It is always the danger !
The real thing would be to find a beautiful Irish name with no equivalent in any other language of the world ; it is certainly impossible . Here's some hard work for linguists!

Excuse me ; that was B0R0N's thought I was continuing and not BRN's . I mixed up the two names.

B0R0N and BRN are the same entity.

Ó Corrain and Maguire give the name Samradán: SAMHRADHÁN; SAMHRÁN "a summery person" but also say it is rare.

"B0R0N and BRN are the same entity. "

An entity? A 'glitch' is preventing use of a preferred tag

Bhuel, níl mórán fianaise le baint as d'ainm cén sort neach tú. Agus cuireann roinnt de do chuid cainte mearbhall orm.

Neach atá ionat, mar sin!

Thar na bliana, rinne mé mé a lán postanna (2000? 3000?). Buafaidh mé do scór fós!

"Conan" which I think is a very beautiful name , full of courage and virility, is very near (in writing and pronouncing) a very rude word in french ; and I never heard a french kid or adult having such a name in France. That wouldn't be possible!

Conan is a Breton family name, and it is a first name as well (originally it is a first name), although it isn't much used nowadays.

BTW, Cionaodh and I are also quite fond of the aforementioned Ó Corráin and Maguire. In case anyone's interested in it, the information is:

Irish Names by Donnchadh Ó Corráin and Fidelma Maguire (ISBN 0946640661).

Lots of alternate spellings, a somewhat decent Irish/English equivalents list in the back, but extremely dangerous for those of us who are pregnant and inclined towards very bizarre names.

A Lughaidh,
I knew CONAN as a family name in Brittany but I didn't know it was used as a first name too (in Brittany, I mean).
But do admit it could be hard to bear in another part of France. I mean, you would have to justify of being a Breton and so on , and so on ...
But I must admit I but once went to Brittany and I haven't got so many Bretons around me here .
And I'm afraid my knowledge of old Irish names is not big enough to help Dipti Shah but other people on this site are real erudits in Irish, I believe.

B'ea é "couillon"

so, is it a version of Somhairle? That would make it Somhaire where the l coalesed into the r. So is it male too?

I don't think Samaire is an Irish name at all.
Certainly it has nothing to do with dawning sun.

I think it is just a good yarn for the actress in question, based on people's ignorance.

One website gave the language of the name as Gaelic, and the origin as Galician!