Boy's name
Micheál
“MEE-hawl”
IPA: /ˈmʲiçalˠ/
the Irish form of Michael, Hebrew 'who is like God?'
Why it is said that way
Worth knowing that ch has two sounds. Beside a or o or u it is the loch sound, but beside e or i it softens to something near a plain h, which is what happens here: MEE-hawl.
- ch → the back-of-the-throat sound in loch — not ch as in church
- á é í ó ú (the fada) → a long vowel — and never optional
The story behind the name
Michael Collins ran the intelligence war that won independence and was shot at Béal na Bláth at 31; Micheál Mac Liammóir co-founded the Gate Theatre and reinvented himself so completely as an Irishman that few knew he was born Alfred Willmore in London.
Its age
Associated with 1922 — Partition — Free State & Northern Ireland.
See Ireland in that year on the atlas ↗
Where the name belongs
Meanings follow Ó Corráin & Maguire's Irish Names and Woulfe; pronunciations give the commonest Irish-English form. Know this name better — a dialect pronunciation, a family tradition? Tell us. · All Irish names A–Z