Everything You Always Wanted to Know About IRISH NAMES But Were Afraid to Ask ling.

[Анатолий Д]

Don't know if your query was answered, but the Irish name is pronounced as:

mh in Irish = v

Caomh = kav

А = the sound of a in word "said"

nach = nah with the c swallowed.

So CaomhАnach = kav-a-nah.

The accent is usually on the first syllable, but that seems to be a personal choice.

The family name is CaomhАnach for a male and ChaomhАnach for a female. The Irish word "Clann" is a feminine word thus the clan name is Clann ChaomhАnach. Many of the variant spellings (and there are over 200 of them!)
are spelled with a femine "Ch": Chabana, Chaviness, Chabiness, Chavnah, Chavnar.

There is no K in Irish and the K spelling was introduced by the English beginning occassionally in the 14th century, but consistently from 1700 onward. By time of the famine most CaomhАnachs had their name spelled as Kavanagh by the English authorities, but when they immigrated to the New World, many change back to the C spelling. Early CaomhАnach immigrants before 1720 almost always spelled their name Cavanaugh, the most common spelling in the world today. The most common in Ireland is Kavanagh, although there are still Cavanaghs. These days, the tendency of the your Irish is to change their name back to the original.

There is, of course, no O (family of) or Mc (son of) because the name CaomhАnach means "of noble birth", which is sometimes interpreted as meaning "handsome", i.e. born with noble looks. Occasionally writers will claim the name means "a follower of Caomhan (Kevin)", but that is not quite accurate. The family is the royal family of the Kingdom of Leinster, and thus the first born son of King Dermot MacMurrough was "of noble birth".

Hope this helps you.

Jim Cavanaugh
Clann ChaomhАnach Chief Herald

[Brains]

Почему-то мне кажется, что речь здесь идёт о правильном воспроизведении имени членов одного-единственного клана. Тому, кто вхож в их дома, это сильно поможет, а вот всем остальным? :-(

[Анатолий Д]

Вопрос в форуме был про эту фамилию, но если встретятся другие похожие, то некоторые сведения могут подсказать правильное произношение.
"всем остальным" - всем сразу помочь? кто бы мог...

[TrespassersW]

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About IRISH NAMES.
:-)