In this video I'm going to give you six alternative Irish language names for US
states, these names will acknowledge and respect the local history and geography
of the areas and if you have any thoughts on names that you think are
appropriate for US States, alternative names in Irish that is, please let me know
in the comment section below, so let's start off with the state of Alabama
so Alabama gets his name from the Choctaw Indians and it's said to mean
vegetation gatherers or Bush clearers and it's said to come from the Native
Americans tendency to clear the dense bush to make way for agricultural
practices so I was thinking about this and it reminded me of the name of a
village in County Carlow called Muine Bheag
so that means, Muine means thicket or Bush and beag means small so it means the
small thicket or the small area of bush so I thought I would incorporate that into
Alabama and go for perhaps one of two names Muine Mór or Muine Leathan
so Muine Mór means big Thicket or big Bush & Muine Leathan means wide or vast
thicket or bush, and I think the last one is better Muine Leathan as an
alternative Irish language name for Alabama, Muine Leathan - the dense or vast thicket.
next we have Arizona, so Arizona is said to come from Spanish and it
means small water source or a small well, so the Irish for well is Tobar
Tober so I thought it would be nice to incorporate that into my alternative
name for Arizona and I came up with this one here Tobar Beag, which means the
small well or the small water source Tobar Beag and I think that name
continues to draw on the local history and
the local landscape Tobar Beag - the small well are the small water source.
Let's move on then to Colorado, so Colorado comes from Spanish and it means red and
it's said to reflect the Red River and the red land that was noticed at the time
settlers arrived, so I thought it would be very important to get the word Rua into
this new name for Colorado so I was thinking of Gleann Rua for example so
Gleann means Glen or Valley and rua is red, so it'd be like the red Glen or the
red Valley that was one option and then I thought about Féarthalamh Rua so
Féarthalamh means Prairie and Rua again is red, or even just Féarthalamh
on its own, so that would be red Prairie, but I settled on this one here and I
thought this was really suitable An Abhainn Rua, so that means
the Red River and I'd probably just shorten it to Abhainn Rua, so Abhainn is
River and rua is red and I think that's a really suitable name for
Colorado that reflects the history and the geography Abhainn Rua - the Red River
another alternative name for Colorado. Next we have Kentucky so this comes from
one of the old Indian languages and it's said to mean land of tomorrow land of
tomorrow, so I was thinking about Inis Fáil as a potential name for this
Inis Fáil means island of Destiny, Inis Fáil, but then I was also thinking
about some other names like these Talamh Fáil came into my head, Talamh Fáil
that means ground of destiny or land of destiny but the one I settled on was
this one here Cluain Fáil, that means the meadow of destiny so Cluain is meadow and
fáil is destiny and I think having reflected on the
history of the name, this is an appropriate Irish language name for
Kentucky- Cluain Fáil, the meadow of destiny. Let's move on then to Indiana so
this basically means the land of the Indians and I thought a good name for
this would be to bring Tír which means country and Dúchais
which means native and if we bring them together we'll get this word here
Tír Dhúchais, native land, Tír Dhúchais, I was considering Dúchasach as well which
means natives or native but I think Tír Dhúchais is very appropriate for
Indiana, it just means native land or native
country in homage to the Native Americans who were the first and original settlers there anyway
next we have Michigan so Michigan gets its name
from the huge lake to the north called Lake Michigan so I thought Loch Mór
could be a good name for that so Loch Mór brings two words together, Loch
which means Lake and Mór which means big or large, I was also considering
this one here Loch an Thuaidh so that means the lake of the North or
the northern lake, but I think keeping it simple here and going with Loch Mór is
probably the best way to describe Michigan as it reflects the local
geography that's so important to the State, Loch Mór - an alternative name for Michigan the large lake
so let's go down through those names now again just to summarise...
remember if you think you have some really good Irish
language names for other States or even other countries, please let me know in
the comment section, I hope you enjoyed this if you did please give it a thumbs up
and I'll be back very soon, slán go fóill.