Ireland is known for its wide expanses of lush, green fields. In fact, its nickname is the Emerald Isle.
But once they got going in the name game, monikers fairly cascaded in: Éire, Erin, the Emerald Isle, the Republic, Land of Saints and Scholars — and whatever you're having yourself.
Éire (Irish: [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)) is Irish for "Ireland", the name of both an island in the North Atlantic and the sovereign state of the Republic of Ireland which governs 84% of the island's landmass.
The main islands were called "Ierne", equal to the term Ériu for Ireland, and "Albion" for present-day Great Britain.
Vestmenn (Westmen in English) was the Old Norse word for the Gaels of Ireland and Britain, especially Ireland and Scotland. Vestmannaeyjar in Iceland and Vestmanna in the Faroe Islands take their names from it.
Hibernia, in ancient geography, one of the names by which Ireland was known to Greek and Roman writers. Other names were Ierne, Iouernia and (H)iberio. All these are adaptations of a stem from which Erin and Eire are also derived.
A rich variety of textual evidence from medieval Ireland survives, which suggests there were hundreds of different saints in Ireland. This may explain why Ireland was often labelled 'The Island of Saints' (Insula Sanctorum).
The word “Gaelic” in English derives from Gaeilge which is the word in Irish for the language itself. However, when English is being used, the Irish language is conventionally referred to as “Irish,” not “Gaelic.”
These describe Celts in France and in the North Sea, where the British Isles are. He calls Ireland Insula Sacra (Holy Island) and its inhabitants gens hiernorum, thought to be a Latinisation of the Greek word for Ireland, Ierne.
Erin is a Hiberno-English word for Ireland originating from the Irish word "Éirinn". "Éirinn" is the dative case of the Irish word for Ireland, "Éire", genitive "Éireann", the dative being used in prepositional phrases such as "go hÉirinn" "to Ireland", "in Éirinn" "in Ireland", "ó Éirinn" "from Ireland".
Hibernia, in ancient geography, one of the names by which Ireland was known to Greek and Roman writers. Other names were Ierne, Iouernia and (H)iberio. All these are adaptations of a stem from which Erin and Eire are also derived.
Sláinte means "health" in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It is commonly used as a drinking toast in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.
The earliest known Irish surname is O'Clery (O Cleirigh); it's the earliest known because it was written that the lord of Aidhne, Tigherneach Ua Cleirigh, died in County Galway back in the year 916 A.D.
The ancient Celts weren't Irish. They weren't Scottish, either. In fact, they were a collection of people/clans from Europe that are identified by their language and cultural similarities.
Commerce, not conquest
Comments by a first-century Greek geographer named Strabo might explain why the Roman Empire made no further attempt to conquer Ireland.
Today, six Celtic languages remain, including Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, Breton, Cornish, and Manx.
Scotland and Ireland are close neighbours, and it is no surprise that commercial ancestral Y-DNA testing and the resulting hundreds of Y-DNA Case Studies conducted at Scottish and Irish Origenes have revealed lots of shared ancestry among males with Scottish or Irish origins.
Irish is a main domestic, work or community language for approximately 2% of the population of Ireland.
Julius Caesar, in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, is the first to call the island Hibernia, describes it as about half the size of Britain, and correctly places it to the west of Britain – unlike Strabo, who places it to the north.
Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of Ireland. The name Hibernia was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe (c. 320 BC), Pytheas of Massilia called the island Ierne (written Ἰέρνη).
Ἰουερνία Iouerníā was a Greek rendering of the Q-Celtic name *Īweriū, from which eventually arose the Irish names Ériu and Éire. The name was altered in Latin (influenced by the word hībernus) as though it meant "land of winter", although the word for winter began with a long 'i'.
They are the Sidhe (pronounced “shee”) – mystical fairy-like people who supposedly inhabited Ireland prior to the arrival of the Celts (the Milesians). The Tuatha de Dannan are credited with naming Ireland.
Today, Celtic is often used to describe people of the Celtic nations (the Bretons, the Cornish, the Irish, the Manx, the Scots and the Welsh) and their respective cultures and languages.
The Celtic peoples have historically lived across mainland Europe stretching from Swizerland and Turkey in the east to Britain and Ireland In the west. They can be defined by multiple physical characteristics such as red hair, blue and green eyes, tartan clothing, and prominent statures.