After finding that Catharine’s names was indeed spelt the Irish way with an ‘a’ rather than the more common ‘e’, I thought it might be fun to look at the other characters names one-by-one. The first character I will focus on is Garrett Byrne.
The name Garrett originated in Ireland and means ‘brave spearman’. I like to think that the writer of the script chose this name in particular to describe the character. Names and their meanings can often tell a lot about a person, and I believe this is certainly the case here. Garrett Byrne was a courageous, outgoing, handsome, charismatic and a born leader and a lot of this is reflected in what we perceive an ideal ‘brave spearman’ to be.
The last name Byrne is also Irish and is a variant of O’Broin meaning descendants of Branach or Bran and meaning ‘raven’. The family/clan originally came from Kildare and claim descent from Bran, the King of Leinster. It is a common surname in Wicklow, Dublin and Louth.
Here I have included the Byrne coat of arms. It has the blazon of a red shield, with a chevron between three silver dexter hands, the Crest being a mermaid complete with comb and mirror.
Another interesting fact is the Byrne motto is “Certavi et Vici” meaning “I have fought and conquered”. I think this is a perfect motto for Byrne’s character...don’t you?
3 comments:
This is really interesting! As you know I love the history on names and family crests are also right up my alley. It's very neat that all the names fit so well with the character.
At first I was doubtful of the name Garrett's Irish origins. But after looking it up I realized that although Garrett is a form of the German names Gerald & Gerard which was introduced to Ireland by the Normans. Once translated to Garret/Garrett the name stuck in Ireland and is considered very Irish indeed. The Gaelic spelling would be Gearoid. The name is as Irish as its related surname Fitzgerald. And I did find in one of my Irish name books that the names Garrett and Garrett-Michael were very often used and associated with the O'Byrne family/clan (along with the names Fiacha & Ughaire). I think its wonderful that the script writer took all of these things into account when naming the character!
All this lovely Irish history and the lovely Irish names! I loved this post and can't wait to see some of the other character names discussed!
~Miss Laurie
Old-Fashioned Charm
Wow! Thank you so much, Miss Laurie for all that extra information and for taking the time to look into it. It makes me wonder if how many script writers actually take the time to pick a name which suits their character.
Garrett-Michael wow, i really like that combination! Ohh and Ughaire, I have never heard that name before but there is something about it I really like :)
God Bless
Mel :)
Garrett intrigued me very much and I needed to know more. I love researching thing like this, especially names and their history!
One thing that bugs me a bit about some movie makers is that they don't stop to think about characters names in relation to their time period, surname, parents and character. There's so much can you can tell about a person by their name - names always seem to tell a story and I love that! :)
~Miss Laurie
Old-Fashioned Charm
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