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From: condon@uw-larry (Anne Condon)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Re: Gender of Macintoshes?
Message-ID: <1870@uw-beaver>
Date: Fri, 10-Oct-86 14:01:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.1870
Posted: Fri Oct 10 14:01:33 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Oct-86 05:51:23 EDT
References: <4246@reed.UUCP>
Sender: nobody@uw-beaver
Reply-To: condon@uw-larry.UUCP (Anne Condon)
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Organization: U of Washington Computer Science, Seattle
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Keywords: Gaelic, names

Speaking of gender in Gaelic, the O' in an Irish surname such as
O'Donnell actually comes from the word "ua" which means "decsendant".
The gaelic word for son, like the scottish, is mac, though it is
not used in formal names.
Unmarried women and girls have the "ni" in their names, meaning
"daughter of", e.g. Triona Ni Dhomhnaill. Once married women take their
husbands name and the "ni" is replaced by "Bean Ui", meaning 
"woman of", e.g. Maire Bean Ui Neill (Mary, Niall's woman). 

It's probably better to keep such chauvinism out of the naming of software!

-Anne Condon (Aine Ni Chonduin
              condon@uw-larry.UUCP
              condon@larry.cs.washington.edu)