Whisky Naming

[oliver86]

Good morning!

I have just bought into a whisky cask at one of the distilleries on Islay. One of the troubles is coming up with a name suggestion. Have spent most of this morning (on the night shift in the middle of the north sea waiting on the weather!) on various dictionary and Gaelic sites.

So far I have come up with two names....

Foiseil Dileag…..a peaceful small drop
Sèimh Turus …..tranquil journey (bit like the cool runnings idea as am realistically looking at a minimum 9 year wait)

I was just wondering if someone could tell me if they are correct in spelling, grammar, definition and whether they actually make sense as have just joined words together! Seen a few varieties of words with the same meaning and was a little confused.

Many thanks for reading and hopefully someone can be of help!

Oliver

[Tocasaid]

Hi.

Aye, Gaelic names on whisky are entirely natural even many Scots can't understand them anymore.

One thing to remember is that Gaelic is like French and Spanish when it comes to nouns and verbs - i.e. Poit Dhubh (one of the Gaelic whiskies) is "Pot Black'.

I quite like your 'Turas Seimh'.

A small drop could also be 'boinneag' or 'drudhag' (more like 'dram').

Also take care of the gender. If the world is feminine, the adjective aspirates with an h after the first letter. Hence 'slainte mHath'. The world for 'health' being feminine.

Other adjectives for 'peaceful, quiet or relaxed' could be sàmhach, sona, sitheil, ciùin.

Gu math a thèid leat!/ All the best!

slàinte mhath.

[oliver86]

Thanks very much for your help.

Is quite a tricky language to grasp especially when you have the difficulty of trying to come up with a new name also! Found this website that inspired me to come up with something and found it quite interesting to see how the 'pros' in the whisky world work!

Whisky Leaks: Top Ten Unreleased Gaelic Whisky Names — Dramming

[Tocasaid]

Se do bheata/ you're welcome.

Might be some help here at BBC Alba.
BBC ALBA - Learn Gaelic