“It's not Really a Nickname, it's a Method”: Local Names, State Intimates, and Kinship Register in the Irish Gaeltacht

Abstract

Naming systems in Gaeltacht (Irish‐speaking) communities in western Ireland produce different sociolinguistic registers. I argue that the use of a person's ainm áitiúil (“local name”) establishes and enlists a generalized register of kinship and social intimacy in the Gaeltacht. Local agents of the state (“state intimates”) articulate local names with official state‐recognized names, operating between the registers these names represent. The ways in which local names are used, the knowledge about persons they produce, and the social relations they represent draw together personal identity, spoken practice, and kinship values in this particular Gaeltacht community. [Ireland; Irish language; kinship; names; register]