So I have been studding Ogham runes and learning some of the history. I think I got this right so correct me if I'm wrong please.
There is no Y in the alphabet so I have seen Y for y and H what is correct?. I even heard of some just being creative with their own design. I want it to pretty accurate.

RILEY

This will be a tattoo so if anybody else has some creative ideas shoot i'm flexible.

For thows who might not be able to see text here it is ill try to explane. I'm trying to find out what to use as the letter (Y) in ogham. I did find on a sight that said its the same as (h) = Uath- Hawthorn in the alphabet. just curious what id find on this forum.

I wan't to pronounce my Sir Name: "Riley" in Ogham

Thank you everybody who can help or have any input Cheers

Hi Riley, welcome to the forum.

I'm on my phone and I have no access to a computer. To get the ball rolling; if you scroll down and enter the useful links section on the board index you'll see a link to an ogham transcriber. You can type any word you like and it will transcribe it. If I had my computer with me I do the hard work for you.

As there is no Y in ogham, maybe you could change the spelling of your name to either

Rili

Or

Rilide/ Rilige*

*Words ending in ide/ ige were not pronounced as "ee" during the Primitive Irish period, but over time they were lenited to create idhe/ ighe and eventually the pronunciation morphed to become an " ee" sound.

So you have Rili, which may have been pronounced very similarly to Riley

Or else,

Rilide which eventually morphed to sound like RILEY.

Either way this is purely hypothetical.

Wait for some more input,

Cian

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

PS. If I remember correctly the ogham transcriber will write the transcription from left to right. But ogham is traditionally read from the bottom up, so when your eventually getting it tatooed you might want to display it to read from the bottom up.

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

The surname "Riley" in Irish is "Ó Raghallaigh" for a man, "Ní Raghallaigh" as a woman's maiden name, and "Uí Raghallaigh" for a woman's married name, so maybe start from there.

Redwolf

I wouldnt have thought of that . Does the given name Riley come from the surname O'Reilly or Ó Raghallaigh though?

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Thank you much for your help and speedy replies Ill do more research on this great idea's as well. It's taken me 3 years to draw up my tattoos so I have a lot of patients to study and get it right. Ogham was just a thought Very interesting history behind it.
"Ó Raghallaigh" I have this on my coat of arms

Thanks again

The OP said it was a surname. But yes...the given name, at least in the States, comes from the surname (though it must have been a given name at some point before in any case).

Redwolf

According to MacLysaght's Surnames of Ireland, and the usual spelling rule about caol le caol ..., there's a letter missing in each case, and the last "a" shown above is not there. They should be:
Ó Raghailligh for a man,
Ní Raghailligh as a woman's maiden name, and
Uí Raghailligh for a woman's married name

Corrected per the further discussion below.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

But that goes AGAINST "caol le caol."

Redwolf

Sorry, I meant to say (and indicate) that the last "a" is not shown in MacLysaght. Thus:
Ó Raghailligh for a man,
Ní Raghailligh as a woman's maiden name, and
Uí Raghailligh for a woman's married name[/quote]

I was not originally looking to second guess you, by the way, Red. I was in the process of looking it up before I saw your first response.

_________________
I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.