Database of Irish-Language Surnames

This repository contains a snapshot of the Database of Irish-Language Surnames (Bunachar Sloinnte Gaeilge) developed by the Gaois research group in Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge in Dublin City University. The structure and design principles of the database are described in this publication:

Brian Ó Raghallaigh, Michal Boleslav Měchura, Aengus Ó Fionnagáin, & Sophie Osborne. (2021). Developing the Gaois Linguistic Database of Irish-language Surnames. Names, 69(1), 10–19. https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2251

You can browse the database through our web interface at www.gaois.ie/sloinnte/. This repository contains a downloadable version of the database in XML format which you can reuse in your own applications.

minimal.xml

This file contains the database in minimal format. Example:

  <cluster>
    <title>Ceallach</title>
    <surnames-irish-main>
      <surname-irish>
        <form>Ó Ceallaigh</form>
      </surname-irish>
      <surname-irish>
        <form>Mac Ceallaigh</form>
      </surname-irish>
    </surnames-irish-main>
    <surnames-irish-historical />
    <surnames-irish-alternative />
    <surnames-english-main>
      <surname-english>
        <form>Kelly</form>
      </surname-english>
      <surname-english>
        <form>O'Kelly</form>
      </surname-english>
    </surnames-english-main>
    <surnames-english-historical />
    <surnames-english-alternative />
  </cluster>

Each <cluster> contains at least one <surname-irish> and at least one <surname-english>. Each <surname-irish> and each <surname-english> contains exactly one <form>. There are over 1,000 such clusters in the database (and in the XML file). Each cluster groups surnames in both languages (Irish and English) which are more or less equivalent (see the publication for an explanation of how we decide when surnames are equivalent and when not).

expand.xsl

This XSL stylesheet can be used to transform the database from the minimal format into an expanded format. It contains an algorithm for detecting which inflection pattern an Irish-language surname belongs to, and for inflecting surnames according to such patterns.

expanded.xml

This file contains the database in expanded format, after it has been transformed by the stylesheet. Example:

  <cluster>
    <title>Ceallach</title>
    <surnames-irish-main>
      <surname-irish>
        <form gender="male" case="nom"><pre>Ó</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
        <form gender="male" case="gen"><pre>Uí</pre> C<mut>h</mut>eallaigh</form>
        <form gender="male" case="voc"><pre>Uí</pre> C<mut>h</mut>eallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="wife" case="nom"><pre>Uí</pre> C<mut>h</mut>eallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="wife" case="gen"><pre>Uí</pre> C<mut>h</mut>eallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="wife" case="voc"><pre>Uí</pre> C<mut>h</mut>eallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="daughter" case="nom"><pre>Ní</pre> C<mut>h</mut>eallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="daughter" case="gen"><pre>Ní</pre> C<mut>h</mut>eallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="daughter" case="voc"><pre>Ní</pre> C<mut>h</mut>eallaigh</form>
      </surname-irish>
      <surname-irish>
        <form gender="male" case="nom"><pre>Mac</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
        <form gender="male" case="gen"><pre>Mhic</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
        <form gender="male" case="voc"><pre>Mhic</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="wife" case="nom"><pre>Mhic</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="wife" case="gen"><pre>Mhic</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="wife" case="voc"><pre>Mhic</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="daughter" case="nom"><pre>Nic</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="daughter" case="gen"><pre>Nic</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
        <form gender="female" familyStatus="daughter" case="voc"><pre>Nic</pre> Ceallaigh</form>
      </surname-irish>
    </surnames-irish-main>
    <surnames-irish-historical />
    <surnames-irish-alternative />
    <surnames-english-main>
      <surname-english>
        <form>Kelly</form>
      </surname-english>
      <surname-english>
        <form>O'Kelly</form>
      </surname-english>
    </surnames-english-main>
    <surnames-english-historical />
    <surnames-english-alternative />
  </cluster>

The expanded format has the same structure as the minimal format, except that each <surname-irish> contains a larger number of <form> elements.

• If the surname takes on different shapes for men and women (which most – but not all! – Irish-language surnames do), then those forms are distinguished with the gender attribute (value male or female).

• If the woman's surname takes on different shapes depending on whether the bearer of the name is conceptualized as a "wife" or as a "daughter" (which most – but not all! – Irish-language female surnames do), then those forms are distinguished with the familyStatus attribute (value wife or daughter).

• Each Irish-language <form> also has a case attribute to tell you which grammatical case this form is in: nominative (nom), genitive (gen) or vocative (voc).

The text content of each Irish-language <form> is maked up with the following inline elements:

• <pre> marks up prefixed elements such as Ó and Mac as well their inflected forms.
• <mut> marks up initial mutations caused by the prefixed elements.

If you remove the <pre> and <mut> elements (including their content) from the <form> and trim any leading whitespace from the result, you will end up with a gender-neutral, family status-neutral sortkey for the surname.