In the pedigrees of other families, various instances are on record of cognomens having been applied by posterity to chieftains from the place of their deaths; in the family of O’Neill, for example, Brian Chatha an Duin, or “of the battle of Down,” was so called by posterity from his having been killed in a battle fought at Downpatrick in the year 1260; in the family of O’Brien, Conor na Siudaine, from the wood of Suidain in Burren, in which he was killed in the year 1267; and in the family of Mac Carthy, the celebrated Fineen Reanna Roin, from his having been killed at the castle of Rinn Roin in the year 1261, after a brilliant career of victory over the English.
On this subject of cognomens and sobriquets among the Irish, Sir Henry Piers wrote as follows in the year 1682, in a description of the county of Westmeath, written in the form of a letter to Anthony Lord Bishop of Meath, and published in the first volume of Vallancey’s Collectanea:—
“Every Irish surname or family name hath either O or Mac prefixed, concerning which I have found some make this observation, but I dare not undertake that it shall hold universally true, that such as have O prefixed were of old superior lords or princes, as O’Neal, O’Donnell, O’Melaghlin, &c., and such as have Mac were only great men, viz, lords, thanes, as Mac Gennis, Mac Loghlin, Mac Doncho, &c. But however this observation [may] hold, it is certain they take much liberty, and seem to do it with delight, in giving of nicknames; and if a man have any imperfection or evil habit, he shall be sure to hear of it in the nickname. Thus, if he be blind, lame, squint-eyed, grey-eyed, be a stammerer in speech, be left-handed, to be sure he shall have one of these added to his name; so also from his colour of hair, as black, red, yellow, brown, &c.; and from his age, as young, old; or from what he addicts himself to, or much delights in, as in draining, building, fencing, or the like; so that no man whatever can escape a nickname who lives among them, or converseth with them; and sometimes so libidinous are they in this kind of raillery, they will give nicknames per antiphrasim, or contrariety of speech. Thus a man of excellent parts, and beloved of all men, shall be called grana, that is, naughty or fit to be complained of; if a man have a beautiful countenance or lovely eyes, they will call him Cueegh, that is, squint-eyed; if a great housekeeper, he shall be called Ackerisagh, that is greedy.” (Collectanea, vol. I. p. 113.)
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the Irish families increased, and their territories were divided into two and three parts among rival chieftains of the same family, each of the chieftains adopted some addition to the family surname for the sake of distinction. Thus, among the O’Conors of Connaught we find O’Conor Don, i. e. O’Conor the brown-haired, and O’Conor Roe, or the red-haired. This distinction was first made in the year 1384, when Torlogh Don and Torlogh Roe, who had been for some time in emulation for the chieftainship of the territory of Shilmurry, agreed to have it divided equally between them; on which occasion the former was to be called O’Conor Don, and the latter O’Conor Roe. (See Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Charles O’Conor). It is now supposed by many of the Irish that the epithet Don postfixed to the name of the chief of the O’Conors is a Spanish title! while those who are acquainted with the history of the name think that he should reject it as being a useless sobriquet, and more particularly now, as there is no O’Conor Roe from whom he needs to be distinguished. It is true that the O’Conor Don might now very lawfully be called the O’Conor, as there is no O’Conor Roe or O’Conor Sligo, at least none who take the name; but as he had borne it before O’Conor Roe disappeared, we would not advise it to be rejected for another generation, as we think that an O’Conor Roe will in the meantime make his appearance, for we are acquainted with an individual of that name who knows his pedigree well, but is not sufficiently wealthy to put himself forward as an Irish chieftain.
In the same province we find the Mac Dermots of Moylurg divided into three distinct families the head of whom was, par excellence, styled the Mac Dermot, and the other two who were tributary to him called, the one Mac Dermot Roe, i. e. the Red, and the other Mac Dermot Gall, or the Anglicised. In Thomond we find the Mac Namaras split into two distinct families, distinguished by the names of Mac Namara Fin, i. e. the Fair, and Mac Namara Reagh, or the Swarthy. In Desmond the family of Mac Carthy split into three powerful branches, known by the names of Mac Carthy More or the Great, Mac Carthy Reagh or the Swarthy, and Mac Carthy Muscryagh, i. e. of Muskerry. Beauford asserts with his usual confidence that Mac Carthy Reagh signifies Mac Carthy the King, but this is utterly fallacious, for the epithet, which is anglicised Reagh, is written riach and riabhach, in the original annals of Inisfallen and of the Four Masters, and translated fuscus by Philip O’Sullivan Beare (who knew the import of it far better than Beauford) in his History of the Irish Catholics published at Lisbon in 1621. The O’Sullivans split into the families of O’Sullivan More and O’Sullivan Beare; the O’Donovans into those of O’Donovan More, O’Donovan Locha Crot, and O’Hea O’Donovan; the O’Kennedys of Ormond into those of O’Kennedy Finn, O’Kennedy Roe, and O’Kennedy Don; the O’Farrells of Annally into those of O’Farrell Bane, i. e. the White, and O’Farrell Boy, or the Yellow, &c., &c.
The foregoing notices are sufficient to show the nature of the surnames in use among the ancient Scotic or Milesian Irish families. It will be now expected that I should say a few words on the effect which the Anglo-Norman invasion and the introduction of English laws, language, and names, have had in changing or modifying them, and on the other hand the influence which the Irish may have had in changing or modifying the English names.
After the murder, in 1333, of William de Burgo, third Earl of Ulster of that name, and the lessening of the English power which resulted from it, many if not all of the distinguished Anglo-Norman families located in Connaught and Munster became hibernicised—Hibernis ipsis Hiberniores—spoke the Irish language, and assumed surnames in imitation of the Irish by prefixing Mac (but never O in any instance) to the Christian names of their ancestors. Thus the De Burgos in Connaught took the name of Mac William from their ancestor William de Burgo, and were divided into two great branches, called Mac William Oughter and Mac William Eighter, i. e. Mac William Upper and Mac William Lower, the former located in the county of Galway, and the latter in that of Mayo; and from these sprang many offshoots who took other surnames from their respective ancestors, as the Mac Davids of Glinsk, the Mac Philbins of Dun Mugdord in Mayo, the Mac Shoneens, now Jennings, and the Mac Gibbons, now Fitzgibbons. The Berminghams of Dunmore and Athenry in Connaught, and of Offaly in Leinster, took the name of Mac Feoiris, from Pierce, the son of Meyler Bermingham, who was one of the principal heads of that family in Ireland. The head of the Stauntons in Carra took the name of Mac Aveely. The chief of the Barretts of Tirawley took the name of Mac Wattin, and a minor branch of the same family, located in the territory of the Two Backs, lying between Lough Con and the river Moy, assumed that of Mac Andrew, while the Barretts of Munster took the now very plebeian name of Mac Phaudeen, from an ancestor called Paudeen, or Little Patrick. The De Exeters of Gallen, in Connaught, assumed the surname of Mac Jordan from Jordan De Exeter, the founder of that family; and the Nangles of the same neighbourhood took that of Mac Costello. Of the Kildare and Desmond branches of the Fitzgeralds there were two Mac Thomases, one in Leinster, and the other in the Desies, in the now county of Waterford, in Munster. A branch of the Butlers took the name of Mac Pierce, and the Poers, or Powers, that of Mac Shere. The Freynes of Ossory took the name of Mac Rinki, and the Barrys that of Mac Adam. In the present county of Kilkenny were located two families, originally of great distinction, who took the strange name of Gaul, which then signified Englishman, though at an earlier period it had been a term applied by the Irish to all foreigners; the one was Stapleton, who was located at Gaulstown, in the parish of Kilcolumb, barony of Ida, and county of Kilkenny; the other a branch of the Burkes, who obtained extensive estates in that part of Ireland, and dwelt at Gaulstown, in the barony of Igrine. The writer, who is the sixth in descent from the last head of this family, has many of his family deeds, in which he styles himself sometimes Galle and sometimes Galle alias Borke; on his tomb, however, in his family chapel at Gaulskill, he is called Walterus De Burgo without the addition of Galle, and is there said to be descended from the Red Earl of Ulster. His descendants now all retain the name of Gaul, as do those of his neighbour Stapleton. The Fitzsimons, in Westmeath, took the name of Mac Ruddery, and the Wesleys that of Mac Falrene, &c. &c.
Edmund Spenser, secretary to the Lord Arthur Grey (deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth in the year 1580), attempted to prove that many distinguished families then bearing Irish surnames, and accounted of Irish origin, were really English. This, however, is undoubtedly false, and is a mere invention of the creative fancy of that great poet and politician: but as it has been received as truth by Sir Charles Coote and other English writers, we shall show how Spenser deceived himself or was deceived on this point. He instances the following families: 1, The Mac Mahons of Oriel in Ulster, who, as he states on the authority of the report of some Irishmen, came first to Ireland with Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, under the name of Fitz-Ursula: 2, The Mac Mahons of the South: 3, The Mac Sweenys of Munster: 4, The Mac Sheehys of Munster: 5, The O’Brins or O’Byrnes of Leinster: 6, The O’Tooles of the same province: 7, The Cavanaghs: 8, The Mac Namaras of Thomond. But he gives no proof for his assertions but the report of some Irishmen, corroborated by etymological speculations of his own; and as the report of some unnamed persons can have no weight with us when in direct contradiction of the authentic annals of the country, I shall slightly glance at some of the most important of his etymological evidences, and then give my own proofs of the contrary. To prove that the Mac Mahons of Oriel are the Fitz-Ursulas, he says that Mahon signifies bear in Irish, and hence that Mac Mahon is a translation of Fitz-Ursula; but granting that Mahon does mean a bear, it does not follow that Mac Mahon is a translation of Fitz-Ursula. But we have stronger reasons to urge than to prove that this is a non sequitur, for we have the testimony of the authentic pedigree of the Mac Mahons of Oriel, and of the annals of Ulster, that the Mac Mahons had been located in Oriel and had borne that name long before the English invasion. The Mac Mahons and Mac Namaras of the south are a branch of the Dal-Cais, a great tribe located in Thomond, whose history is as certain from the ninth century as that of any people in Europe. The Mac Sweenys and Mac Sheehys of Munster are of Irish origin, but their ancestors removed to Scotland in the tenth century, or beginning of the eleventh, and some of their descendants returned to Ireland in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and were hereditary leaders of Gallowglasses to many Irish chieftains. To prove that the Byrnes, Tooles, and Cavanaghs, are of British origin, he has recourse also to etymology, which is a great lever in the hand of a historical charlatan, and says, in the first place, that Brin in the Welsh language means woody, and that hence the O’Brins or O’Byrnes must be of Welsh origin. But admitting that Brin does in the Welsh language mean woody, what has that to do with O’Brain, the original Irish name of O’Byrne, especially when it can be proved that that surname was called after Bran, king of Leinster, who was usually styled Bran Duv, i. e. the Black Raven, from the colour of his hair, and his thirst for prey. Secondly, to prove that O’Toole is a Welsh name, he says that tol means hilly in the Welsh language! and so does tol in Irish bear this meaning. But what, I would ask, has that to do with O’Tuathail, or descendants of Tuathal, the son of Ugaire, from whom this family have taken their surname? The name Tuathal, signifying the lordly, has no more to do with tol, a hill, than it has with the English word tool, to which it has been anglicised for the last two centuries. Thirdly, to prove that the name Cavanagh is of Welsh origin, he asserts that Kaevan in Welsh signifies strong in English. This may be true; but what has the signification of the Welsh word Kaevan to do with the name of the Mac Murroghs of Leinster, who assumed the cognomen of Cavanagh from Donnell Cavanagh, the son of Dermot Mac Murrogh, who had himself received this name from his having been fostered at Kilcavan in the north-east of the present county of Wexford? Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici?
These errors of Spenser have been already exposed by Dr Jeffry Keating, a man of learning and undoubted honesty, but of great simplicity, which is characteristic of the age in which he lived, also by Gratianus Lucius, and by the learned Roderic O’Flaherty, who has devoted a chapter of his Ogygia to prove that Spenser, though a distinguished poet, can have no claim to credit as a historian. Spenser’s purpose in fabricating this story about the Mac Mahons was to hold them up as objects of hatred to the Irish and English people, as being descended from the murderer of Thomas à Becket. He never succeeded, however, in convincing Ever Mac Cooley, or any other of the rebels of the Farney, that they were descended from the Beares of England! Spenser also asserts that it was said that most of the surnames ending in an, though then considered Irish, were in reality English, such as Hernan, Shinan, Mungan, &c. I do not, however, believe a word of this latter assertion of the great English poet, but conclude, with the simple and honest Keating, that, “as being a poet, he gave himself, as was usual with the profession, licence to revel in poetic fictions, which he dressed in flowery language to decoy his reader.” For we know that there is not a single instance on record of any Anglo-Norman family having taken any Irish names except such as they formed from the names or titles of their own ancestors by prefixing Mac, which they considered equivalent to the Norman Fitz, as Mac Maurice, Mac Gibbon, Mac Gerald, Mac William, which are equivalent to Fitz-Maurice, Fitz-Gibbon, Fitz-Gerald, Fitz-William. In this manner, however, the great Anglo-Norman families of the south and west of Ireland, who were after all more French and Irish than they were English (their ancestors having dwelt scarcely a century in England), nearly all hibernicised their names. It seems rather curious that Spenser has not furnished any list of those Anglo-Norman families who really hibernicised their names, while he was so minute in naming those who were not English, but whom he wished to make appear as such, in order to be enabled to censure them the more harshly for their treasons and rebellions. He contents himself by stating that there were great English families in Ireland who, he regretted to say, had become Irish in name and feeling. The manner in which he states this fact is worthy of consideration, and I shall therefore insert his very words here as they appear in the Dublin edition:—“Other great houses there bee of the English in Ireland, which thorough licentious conversing with the Irish or marrying or fostering with them, or lacke of meet nurture [i. e. education or rearing], or such other unhappy occasions, have degendred from their auncient dignities, and are now growne ‘as Irish as O’Hanlon’s breech,’ as the proverbe there is.”
Sir Henry Piers of Tristernagh, in the county of Westmeath, complains of the same custom among the families of English descent, in about a century after Spenser’s period.