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in reply to a message by Lumia
Dónal is just used to be Irish for Daniel because it is similar in sound, though not related? Kind of like Saraid or Sorcha for Sarah.
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In the 17th c., since Dónal sounded vaguely similar to Daniel (in fact, because they had some common letters: D-N-L) it was anglicized as Daniel. So it was the other way (Daniel was the English for Dónal).
During the Gaelic Revival, a lot of public figures irishized wrongly their names, in some cases in good faith and by ignorance (they didn't have great knownlege of Irish and honestly thought that some similar names were equivalent) and in other cases because the Irish form was "not Irish enough". In some other cases it is very possible that the original name, used in real life by family and friends, was the Irish one but since the official use of Irish language was banned in official documents (also the registration of given names) the official name was the English one; then, the personage had in fact two different names, not equivalents. This situation spreaded the wrong equivalences even in public states.
That is why is so hard to argue with Irish people that some names are not the same, especially if you are an immigrant in Ireland (as it is my case), and that is why I have gotten used to quote Ó Corráin & Maguire and Ó Muirithe in relation to wrong equivalences for Irish names.
The problem with summerRaine's post was that it presented Dónal as "another Irish form of Daniel", which is not true, instead of present it as the possible form that Kaitlin was looking for even if it was an unrelated name.
During the Gaelic Revival, a lot of public figures irishized wrongly their names, in some cases in good faith and by ignorance (they didn't have great knownlege of Irish and honestly thought that some similar names were equivalent) and in other cases because the Irish form was "not Irish enough". In some other cases it is very possible that the original name, used in real life by family and friends, was the Irish one but since the official use of Irish language was banned in official documents (also the registration of given names) the official name was the English one; then, the personage had in fact two different names, not equivalents. This situation spreaded the wrong equivalences even in public states.
That is why is so hard to argue with Irish people that some names are not the same, especially if you are an immigrant in Ireland (as it is my case), and that is why I have gotten used to quote Ó Corráin & Maguire and Ó Muirithe in relation to wrong equivalences for Irish names.
The problem with summerRaine's post was that it presented Dónal as "another Irish form of Daniel", which is not true, instead of present it as the possible form that Kaitlin was looking for even if it was an unrelated name.
1