Community / What’s in a name? Strongman grapples with Shetland’s etymology
A MAIDEN visit to Shetland led one linguistics student and strongman down a “rabbit hole” to discover the origins of our isles’ name.
Fionn Ó Dubhairle, from Ireland, was in Lerwick to compete in the UK’s Strongest Man under-70kg competition at the Clickimin last month.
But after a “wonderful time in Shetland”, once he returned home he found himself thinking more and more about where its name had come from.
“I’m a linguist at heart, so anywhere I end up will draw my curiosity about the local language and history,” he told Shetland News.
“The name of a place itself is the heart of that, I suppose.
“Cameron Nisbet inviting me over for UK’s Strongest Man earlier this year was the catalyst for that – when I arrived it was just a matter of learning about the place.
“I didn’t expect it to be such a rabbit hole though!”
Ó Dubhairle spent a “good two weeks” researching Shetland’s etymology before publishing what he has titled a “new proposal for an existing theory on the name of Shetland”.
His Substack article delves into a theory linking Shetland to the name Inse Catt, or the “islands of the cats”.
However the cats in this link are not the four-legged feline kind, but instead a “Pictish tribe alluded to in a euhemerised Pictish origin story”.
He also explores the use of Hjaltland and Zetland in Shetland’s past, and delves into the translation of certain words in Whalsay.
Ó Dubhairle said that in between his university thesis – and training for more strongman competitions – he had dedicated time to reading and writing all about Shetland.
“I would definitely love to come back again,” he said.
“I have a great interest in Norse history as well as Iceland and the Faroes, and Shetland seems like a really unique blend of those cultures and what I’m more used to.”
You can read the full article here.
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