Updated, Please Redownload - Names of the Known World: Irish Gaelic Name Replacement

Updated 11/3/11 - Minor fixes, please re-download - I caught a few small problems with my name mods, mostly extra returns at the end of names that was causing the names to show on two lines instead of one. Please re-download to avoid these cosmetic problems.

A collection of Irish Gaelic names from medieval sources to give your historical neighborhoods a more authentic feel. Many people I know requested this mod for their games, and I’m happy to be able to provide it. It’s a collection of Irish Gaelic first and last names for Townies and NPCs, derived from medieval sources. There are 617 male first names, and 161 female ones. (Sorry, ladies, the girls’ names don’t get recorded much.) Due to the complexity of Gaelic last names, needing to be put in the genitive case and other fun things, I only have about 200 male last names, and 110 female ones.

Speaking of last names, the majority of them are patronymics, names derived from the father’s name. Men’s names contain “mac” or “son of” in their construction, while the women’s names include “ingean” or “daughter of”. The remainder of the names are descriptive bynames that translate to things like “the Black” or “of Connacht,” and so forth.

Since the last names are different for men and women, you’ll need at least University or another expansion pack to use this mod as intended. You can use it in a Base Game set up safely, I’ve tested it, but everyone will draw their bynames from the men’s set exclusively, so for true historic accuracy, you’ll need a later EP.

CREATING MATCHING NAMES for your own Sims: Here's where it gets confusing. To create a last name under this naming scheme, you'd take either 'mac' or 'ingean' and add it to the GENITIVE or possessive form of the father's first name. Here's one guide to doing that: http://heatherrosejones.com/names/g...genitives.html.

Now it gets even trickier. For FEMALE names, the father's first name must also be 'softened' or given lenition. Usually, that's done by placing an 'h' after the first consonant - but not all consonants. There's a guide to it here: http://medievalscotland.org/scotnam...tepbystep.shtml

If all this is too confusing, just pick your male Sims names off this list: http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100/ . It gives the most popular male names in early medieval Ireland -- and it also gives the genitive form! That's how I made the last names for this mod.

You'll probably also need to rename your sims through SimPE to keep the last names changing through generations.

I know, it's a lot. But good luck!

Names were drawn from lists at the wonderful Academy of St. Gabriel site. Primarily I used the articles Dated Names found in Ó Corráin and Maguire's Irish Names , by Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland , by Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Index of Names in Irish Annals , by Mari neyn Bryan. I also used the guide on lenition for creating the softer feminine versions for the ladies’ last names.

Here are some samples:

Male First Names


Male Last Names


Female First Names


Female Last Names



If you’re looking at all the interesting names given in the examples, and wondering how on earth to pronounce them, there is a pronunciation guide for old Irish here: Old-Irish Spelling and Pronunciation, by Dennis King

“Well, great, rugs,” you say, “But how do I use it?”

If you’ve never used a mod like this, simply unzip the Live.package and place it in your downloads folder. Do not rename it, or the game will not recognize it for what it is. Remember, you can only have one of this type of default replacement in your game at one time. If you’ve been using another naming mod, please remove it from the downloads folder first! Once the file is in place, all newly spawned townies and NPCs will be named using my lists of names. Old townies and NPCs will still keep their old names.

If, at a later date, you grow tired of my file, or find another you like better, simply delete it, and the game will go back to normal.

Just one more note: some of these names are long. There are compound names in both the first and last name choices, so it’s conceivable that you may end up with a sim named “Gilla Mo Chonna na gCoilech nOifrinn” for example. If that bothers you, feel free to open up the file in SimPE and delete whichever names displease you. Just make a backup, first, just in case.

Enjoy!
rugrat0ne