So, why Ifrinnach?
When we decided we wanted to start breeding, we needed 2 things to start with. A girl and a name. Every breeder has their own name which is known as a prefix, and it forms the first part of the name of any kittens they breed. That’s why Vizzie, Zori, Boop and Weeyin’s all start with ‘Cagaran’ - Heather And Richard‘s prefix, and Bubs and Blondie are Karakoram - Sarah Davidson’s prefix.
Many people choose a prefix with personal meaning, but we really struggled on that front. So we decided to follow the lead of a number of other breeders and use a Gaelic word (being based in Scotland). But which word? Heather kindly gave us a long list of good words and translated a few others, and we settled on Abbanach, which is one of the Gaelic words for ‘Scottish’.
When you apply for a prefix from the GCCF you have to provide a list of names to be considered in order of preference. You can’t use an existing prefix and you can’t use a word only 2 letters away from an existing prefix. I checked these things and submitted. What I didn’t realise or check was that there’s an existing prefix 2 letters different that sounds almost identical 🤦🏻♀️ So we were given our second choice ‘Ifrinnach’ which means ’demon’ or ‘fiend’ 😂
Unfortunately, I was so confident that we’d followed the rules that I’d told Heather our top choice and she’d added it to the official name of the girl we’d chosen - which is why Weeyin is Cagaran Ialach Milis - Abbanach. It’s nice to use your prefix in the name of a girl you’re going to breed from, so that when you look at the pedigree certificate all the names link together.
I thought “that’s ok, we can change her name“. Unfortunately (yes, again), I’d already had her out at a show and once a kitten has been shown, their name can’t be changed 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
SO. Ifrinnach is our prefix and I actually love it. It really tickles me that Weeyin will have “demon” babies.
And what did I learn? Read the rules. Read ALL the rules. Twice. Our friend Nicole Bell used the outline of Weeyin‘s beautiful face to create our logo
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