2 questions, 1 on Dara O'Briain, the other on an odd linguistic shortfall

[AndiFlatland]

1st question: When the comedian Dara O'Briain first emerged as a TV personality, his name was always shown with an apostrophe between the O and the B, as is totally commonplace in Irish names. However, recently, I have noticed that the apostrophe is being omitted regularly, which suggests that it may be the initial of his middle name. I have checked in various places on the internet, and have found that some listings are now showing the O with what, in French, would be called an acute accent (I don't know whether it would be called the same thing in Gaelic). Can anybody clarify this?



2nd question: I was recently trying to describe the singer Emily Sandé to a friend who wasn't familiar with her, and I was looking for a word which doesn't seem to exist. We know the word 'avuncular' describes somebody who has uncle-like qualities - but what is the feminine equivalent? There doesn't appear to be one. My friend suggested 'avauntular' - which works well enough, I suppose, but the word doesn't exist. Anyway, that's how Ms Sandé comes across to me!

[douglas9401]

Perhaps the minute pause required by the apostrophe has been re-allocated to the time used by Mr Obriain to say "aaaaahhh" as a way of letting us know when to laugh at his waves of whimsy.

Or not.

[boxtops]

Emilie doesn't look like any aunt I've even known!

[boxtops]

... and it doesn't sound right, but

materteral, adj.

Characteristic or typical of an aunt.

[Huderon]

At a guess, given that he's Irish, the change to using Ó instead of O' of his surname is simply reverting to the Gaelic way of writing it.

[Huderon]

^^ in his surname, not of his surname

[plowter]

2. materteral - characteristic or typical of an aunt

http://virtuallinguist.typepad.com/the_virtual_linguist/2009/07/can-women-be-avuncular.html

I think of Cissie & Ada as being aunt-like rather than Emily S. Maybe it's a generation thing.

[AndiFlatland]

Still not quite clear on Dara O'Briain...
As for Emeli Sandé... Never heard of the word Materteral, and it's not in my Chambers dictionary. But I accept it's one of those words that is almost never used, so if it's in the OED, I guess it's valid. But what a cumbersome, unwieldy word! (And it's funny how those two words fit their own description!) It took me a while to work out how it might be best pronounced. I still think 'avauntular' is better, as it dovetails neatly with the male counterpart. Shall we start a campaign to have it recognised as the proper word for 'having the qualities of an aunt'?
BTW, boxtops: she may not look like any aunt you know, but the point really was that, having seen her in interview, she did seem to be the kind of person you would like to have as an aunt (although in my case, that would be an odd age-relationship, as I probably have 40 years on her!)