Hi,

I'm creating a list of traditional Irish given names and I'm wondering about the name Lughaidh.

I believe that its pronounced just like the French name Louis, i.e. looee - with the exception maybe of Munster and is derived from the Irish name Lú (Lugh). I'm wondering if Lúí (fadas on both u and i) would be a valid alternative way to spell this name. I found this spelling in Irish Names by Ó Corráin/Maguire.

Lú is also a nice name in its own right actually!

Thanks!

Barry

It's Lúig in Munster.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

The only Lughaidh I know personally pronounces it the Donegal way (Lúí).

It is a rare name in Conamara. I think it is pronounced as Lú_a here.

It's pronounced "lú-í" in Donegal too.
It's not pronounced as in French though, because in French there's only one vowel: [lwi], ie. "lwee", not "loo-ee".

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Thanks for your replies!

Would I be right in saying though that the spelling Lúí forces the Donegal pronunciation, resulting in the name being pronounced the same across dialects? In other words, a Munster speaker would pronounce Lúí as loo-ee.

If this is the case, how might you spell this name so that it would be pronounced "loo-ah" across dialects? Lua or Lúa perhaps?

I don't think anybody spells Lughaidh as Lúí.
If you write "Lughaidh", all Irish speakers will pronounce according to their dialect.
And it's not pronounced "loo-ah"

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Bríd seemed to think it could be, hypothetically at least (see her post above).

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[hr]Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher[/hr]
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Sorry if I gave the impression that it was written as "Lúí". I meant that that was probably how it was pronounced in Donegal- NOT the actual spelling.

If you were trying to invent a new name that would be unambiguous in it's pronunciation, then that would be theoretically correct, but no one would recognise it as being connected to the name Lughaidh.

Traditionalists, as you may have noticed, prefer the ambiguity as it allows them the freedom to pronounce the word according to their own dialect. A bit like English spelling really.

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[hr]Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher[/hr]
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

I have the book Irish Names by Ó Corráin/Maguire and it lists the name as follows:
Lugaid: Lughaidh, Lúí (lú-í)
so the old spelling, followed by the new spellings, followed by the pronunciation in brackets.

It does seem that in the midwest the the name was pronounced Lua, hence: Cill da Lua / Killaloe (Lua's church)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Lua_of_Killaloe

So I guess the authors of the book got a bit carried away with themselves with regards to Lúí. According to google there are a few souls however using this spelling...