What does 'née' mean on RIP.ie? People surprised to find out it's not Irish
The word appears on most death notices for married women in Ireland on RIP.ie and many believed it was the Irish language
RIP.ie is one of the most visited sites in Ireland and features death notices from every county in the country.
Death notices for married women usually include the word née in brackets with the woman's maiden name but it appears many people believed 'née' to be an Irish word.
The word denotes the woman's previous surname but the word is actually not Irish at all and appears on death notices all over the world, including RIP.ie.
The word is actually French and is the female past participle of naître, which means 'to be born.' It originally comes from the Latin word nascī of the same meaning, which makes sense as 'née' in death notices literally means 'born as' the maiden name.
The Irish word for born is 'rugadh'.