What is winter? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Eoin C. Bairéad]

Hi

Mairéad comes from a name that probably originally meant Pearl.
Barrett/Bairéad are slightly more problematic.

The first names of the immediately family of Jesus had Irish versions from
the earlyt Christian period in Ireland - probably as far back as the 6th
century. These were
Íosa, Muire, Iosaif and Eoin. They were not used as personal names, and that
is true today for the first three, with the later Anglo-Norman names
becoming the Máire (Maura), Seosamh and Seán common today.
Then, some time in the late Middle Ages Eoin once again became used.

Eoin


2010/2/25 Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com>

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> Subject:      Re: What is winter? (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> So would it be fair to say that Bairead and Mairead are only coincidentally
> related, unless there's some common proto-IndoEuropean root behind Barrett
> and Margaret?
>
> The Eoin (Old Irish) / Iain (Scots Gaelic) / Sean (Later Irish) / Owen
> (Welsh) / John (English) <= Joannes complex is interesting -- would it
> reflect the closer relation between Scottish and Irish Celtic to each other
> as against Welsh Celtic?  (I can never remember my p's and my q's in this
> context.)
>
> [Actually, looking again at what you say, I've not got that quite right --
> it's more that Eoin and Sean are borrowings into Irish at different times,
> rather than one developed from the other.  One borrowed from the original
> Latin Ioannes and the other from the AF form Jean which developed from
> this.
> Hm.]
>
> Robin
>
>

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