Greek to Irish: addressing a person can change the form of their name
Separate the addressee from a person mentioned in the message
A Greek message can name the person being addressed and also mention another person involved in the event. In Irish, a name used in direct address can have a different form from its ordinary listing form. Check that grammatical role before treating a changed spelling as a different person or an accidental alteration.
The Greek Universal Dependencies documentation identifies the vocative among the cases of Modern Greek nouns and proper nouns. That source-side distinction is useful: a name used to call someone is doing a different job from a name identifying who performed an action. The appropriate Irish expression should preserve the role, rather than simply copying a dictionary heading into every position.
For an original Greek meeting message, imagine a greeting to one colleague followed by a report about another colleague’s arrival. Establish which name belongs to the greeting and which belongs to the arrival report. A translation that turns the arrival participant into the addressee changes who is being spoken to, even if both names remain recognizable.
A verified Irish name paradigm can explain several visible changes
The Gaois surname database gives Seán Ó Téacháin as a nominative example and a Sheáin Uí Théacháin as its vocative counterpart. Its genitive example is Sheáin Uí Théacháin. These entries demonstrate why an initial change or a different surname element cannot be interpreted in isolation: the complete name form and its grammatical function belong together.
The same entry gives Síle Uí Théacháin and the direct-address form a Shíle Uí Théacháin. It separately lists Síle Ní Théacháin with its own corresponding forms. Those documented alternatives are not a licence to replace one person’s surname with another variant simply because both appear on the same reference page.
For a Greek invitation addressed to an Irish recipient, use the recipient’s actual name as the identity to preserve. The database illustrates how particular Irish forms behave; it does not establish that every Greek personal name should be replaced with an Irish-language equivalent. Translating the surrounding greeting and changing the person’s chosen name are separate decisions.
Consider a message containing a greeting, a booking name and a signature. All three may refer to the same individual, but they occupy different functions. A direct-address form in the greeting does not require the booking record to adopt that same form. Check each occurrence against its purpose rather than applying one global replacement.
Do not remove a small word before checking what it marks
In the cited Irish vocative examples, a precedes the name. Its presence is part of the documented address expression. Deleting it solely to make the target match the number of words in the Greek name would ignore the grammatical difference the reference is showing.
Likewise, keep the surname attached to the right person in a longer translated exchange. A greeting to Seán and a statement about Síle should not merge their forms into one hybrid name. Familiar-looking shared surname material is not enough to establish that the entire name is correct.
The practical review is to identify each named person, mark whether the message addresses or describes them, and then compare the complete Irish form. Preserve the person’s identity throughout. The cited paradigm provides concrete evidence for one surname family; other names need their own attested forms rather than endings extrapolated from this example.
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