Seamus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A masculine first name of Irish origin, the Irish equivalent of the name James and often given to boys in Ireland
2. An Irish male forename corresponding to the English name James, commonly used for men and boys in Ireland
3. The Gaelic form of the masculine given name James, familiar in Irish and Scottish communities as a personal name

Etymology: Seamus is the Irish form of James, and its surprising twist is that the name began in English. The Irish Séamas was taken from the English James, so an Irish name that feels entirely native is in fact a borrowed version of a name that travelled from England into Ireland and then came back dressed in Irish spelling. The English James itself descends from the Latin "Iacobus", which came from the Greek "Iakōbos" and ultimately from the Hebrew "Ya'akov", the name of the biblical patriarch Jacob. Irish speakers adapted the English form to fit their own sound patterns, producing Séamas, and the spelling "Seamus" is the anglicized version that English-speaking readers mostly meet today.