Tadhg (, ), (pronunciations given for the name ''Tadgh'' separately from those for the slang/pejorative ''Teague''.) commonly misspelled "Taig" or "Teague", is an Irish and

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...

masculine name that was very common when the

Goidelic languages The Goidelic or Gaelic languages ( ga, teangacha Gaelacha; gd, cànanan Goidhealach; gv, çhengaghyn Gaelgagh) form one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittonic languages. Goidelic languages historicall ...

predominated, to the extent that it is a

synecdoche Synecdoche ( ) is a type of metonymy: it is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole ('' pars pro toto''), or vice versa ('' totum pro parte''). The term comes from Greek . Examples in common E ...

for Irish-speaking man. The name signifies "poet" or "philosopher". This was also the name of many Gaelic Irish kings from the 10th to the 16th centuries, particularly in Connacht and Munster. Tadhg is most common in south-west Ireland, particularly in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

and

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the cou ...

. The name has enjoyed a surge in popularity recently; in 2005 it was the 69th most common name for baby boys and in 2010 the 40th, according to the Central Statistics Office in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

Etymology

The commonly accepted meaning of Tadhg is "poet"Babies' Names,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1995, , entry for "Tadhg" or "storyteller". The ultimate derivation is from the Celtic , who were poets in early Celtic society. In any case, the name is widely attested in Gaulish and early British names. When the whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, many Irish names and place-names were given English meanings. Due to similarity in sound, Tadhg is often listed as an Irish equivalent of the English-language names Thaddeus, Timothy (Tim) or sometimes

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, but these names are not actually related. The name is also spelled "Taḋg" in

Gaelic type Gaelic type (sometimes called Irish character, Irish type, or Gaelic script) is a family of Insular script typefaces devised for printing Classical Gaelic. It was widely used from the 16th until the mid-18th century (Scotland) or the mid-20th ...

with an

overdot When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the ''interpunct'' ( · ), or to the glyphs "combining dot above" ( ◌̇ ) and "combining dot below" ( ◌̣ ) which may be combined with some letters of th ...

over the ''d'' to indicate it is

lenited In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...

; the "dh" serves a similar purpose in the modern spelling. Tadhg has been

anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

as "Taihg", "Tighe" and "Teague". Alternative spellings are "Tadgh" and "Tadhgh".

Synecdoche

Tadhg is also a

and was once so common as an Irish name that it became synonymous with the typical Irishman in the same way that '' Paddy'' or '' Mick'' might be today. Hence, Irish phrases such as ' (lit: Tadhg of the market) or ' (lit: Tadhg of the street) are similar to the English language expression " average Joe" or "the

man on the street ( )Vox Populi
. Oxford Diction ...

" The anglicisation '' Taig'' (and formerly ''Teague'') has been used in English since the seventeenth century to refer to Irishmen. The Irish-language name is used defiantly in a Jacobite poem written in the 1690s: : Taig in the Troubles in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

was used by

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

s to refer to

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

nationalists Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: T ...

People with the name

Traditional

Tadg mac Nuadat Tadg, son of Nuada, was a druid and the maternal grandfather of Fionn mac Cumhail in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. It is unclear whether his father was the short-lived High King Nuada Necht, the god Nuada Airgetlam of the Tuatha Dé Dan ...

, a

Druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Wh ...

in the

Fenian Cycle The Fenian Cycle (), Fianna Cycle or Finn Cycle ( ga, an Fhiannaíocht) is a body of early Irish literature focusing on the exploits of the mythical hero Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warrior band the Fianna. Sometimes called the Ossi ...

, grandfather of

Fionn mac Cumhail Fionn mac Cumhaill ( ; Old and mga, Find or ''mac Cumail'' or ''mac Umaill''), often anglicized Finn McCool or MacCool, is a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish and Manx folklore. He is leader of the ''Fianna'' bands of ...

Gaelic nobility

* Tadg mac Conchobair (died 900),

king of Connacht The Kings of Connacht were rulers of the ''cóiced'' (variously translated as portion, fifth, province) of Connacht, which lies west of the River Shannon, Ireland. However, the name only became applied to it in the early medieval era, being named ...

* Tadg mac Cathail (died 956), king of Connacht * Tadg mac Conchobair (died 962),

king of Ailech The Kings of Ailech were the over-kings of the medieval Irish province of Ailech in north-western Ireland. It encompassed the territories of the Cenél nEógain and Cenél Conaill. After the battle of Cloítech in 789 its kings were exclusivel ...

* Tadhg mac Muircheartach (died 971), king of Uí Díarmata * Tadhg Mór Ua Cellaigh (died 1014), king of Uí Maine * Tadc mac Briain (died 1023), contender for

king of Munster The kings of Munster ( ga, Rí Mumhan), ruled from the establishment of Munster during the Irish Iron Age, until the High Middle Ages. According to Gaelic traditional history, laid out in works such as the '' Book of Invasions'', the earliest ...

* Tadg in Eich Gil (died 1030), king of Connacht * Tadhg mac Muirchertach (''fl.'' 11th century), king of Moylurg * Tadg mac Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (died 1097), king of Connacht * Tadhg mac Muireadach Mac Cárthaigh (died 1123), king of Desmond * Tadhg Mor mac Maelruanaidh (died 1124), king of Moylurg * Tadhg Ua Cellaigh (abducted 1145), king of Uí Maine * Teige Ua Con Ceannainn (''fl.'' 1152), king of Uí Díarmata * Tadg Gláe macDiarmata Ó Briain (died 1154), claimed king of Desmond * Tadhg Cael Uisce Ó Briain (died 1269), tanist of Thomond * Tadhg mac Diarmata (died 1281), king of Moylurg * Tadhg Ó Cellaigh (died 1316), king of Uí Maine * Tadgh Óg Ó Cellaigh (died 1340), king of Uí Maine * Tadgh na gcoar Ó Ruairc (died 1376), king of West Breifne * Tadgh Ruadh Ó Cellaigh (died 1410), king of Uí Maine * Tadhg na Mainistreach Mac Carthaigh Mór (died 1428), king of Desmond * Tadhg Riabhach Ó Dubhda (died 1432), king of Ui Fiachrach Muaidhe * Tadhg mac Tigernán Mór Ó Ruairc (died 1435), king of West Breifne * Tadhg an Glemore Ó Briain (died 1438),

king of Thomond The kings of Thomond ( ga, Rí Tuamhain) ruled from the establishment of Thomond during the High Middle Ages, until the Early modern period. Thomond represented the legacy of Brian Bóruma and the High Kings of Ireland of his line who could no ...

* Tadhg an Chomhaid Ó Briain (died 1466), king of Thomond * Tadhg mac Diarmaid Ó Máille (died 1467), king of Umaill * Tadhg Caech Ó Cellaigh (abdicated 1476), king of Uí Maine * Tadhg mac Diarmata (died 1499), king of Moylurg * Tadgh Liath Mac Carthaigh Mór (died 1503), king of Desmond * Tadgh na Leamhna Mac Cárthaigh (died 1514), claimed king of Desmond * Tadhg Ruadh mac Toirrdelbach (died 1553), king of Mide * Tadhg mac Brian Ballach Ó Ruairc (died 1560), king of West Breifne * Tadhg mac Diarmata (died 1585), king of Moylurg * Tadhg mac Briain na Murtha Ó Ruairc (died 1605), king of West Breifne

Recent

* Tadhg Cooke, Irish contemporary musician * Tadhg Slater, Abstract expressionist, MOMA, Boston and NYC. *

Tadhg Ó Donnchadha Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (1874 – 1949) was an Irish writer, poet, editor, translator and a prominent member of the Gaelic League (''Conradh na Gaeilge'') and the Gaelic Athletic Association. He was editor of ''Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge'' (The ...

(1874–1949), activist for the

Gaelic League (; historically known in English as the Gaelic League) is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it eme ...

* Tadhg Furlong (born 1992), Irish rugby player * Tadhg Kennelly (born 1981), Gaelic and Australian Rules footballer * Tadhg Dall Ó hÚigínn (1550–1591), Irish poet murdered allegedly for writing a satirical poem which insulted a rival aristocratic family * Tadhg Purcell (born 1985), Irish soccer player *

George MacDonald Fraser George MacDonald Fraser (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a British author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman. Biography Fraser was born to Scottish parents in Carlisle, England, ...

's 1977 novel ''

Flashman's Lady ''Flashman's Lady'' is a 1977 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the sixth of the Flashman novels. Plot introduction Presented within the frame of the supposedly discovered historical Flashman Papers, this book describes the bully Flashm ...

'' features the comic character Daedalus Tighe, and John B. Keane's 1965 play '' The Field'', has a character named Tadhg McCabe.

References

External links

{{given name Irish-language masculine given names