Girl's name
Scáthach
“SKAW-hakh”
'the shadowy one', from scáth, 'shadow'
Why it is said that way
The same pair as Cárthach. th is an h, ch is the loch sound, and the fada holds the a long: SKAW-hakh.
- th → h — never the English th
- 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
The warrior woman who taught Cú Chulainn to fight, on her own island, usually taken to be Skye. It was Scáthach who gave him the Gáe Bolga, the spear he could not be beaten with, and she trained the greatest hero in the literature at a time when the warriors in it are all men.
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