The Penn's Grove record., 1883-12-15

/ IA oRRAAC9 W GAtA A'NAAAAA III - nNAA
as to surnames, The traveller in either
of the two Gaelic countries cannot fail
TO have noticed the great number of
persons whom he comes across bearing
Greek ard Latin names. In Scotland
he encounters at every corner Of a street
a Hector, an Alexander or an Kneas.
In Ireland he hobnobs with Festus,
Lucius and Cornelius. He will, how
ever, fall into a great mistake if he
allows himself to suppose that these
people were really Intentionally chris
tened out Of the examples in the Greek
or Latin Grammar. In truth they
were called after, or intended to be
called after, old Gaelic ancestors who
had possibly as little Latin and proba-
bly, far less Greek, than Shakespeare
himself, but whose Irish names looked
or sounded something like the classical
names, of which accordingly they were,
and are to this day, by thoughtless
people, supposed to be t~ranslatiOns.
Occasionally, no doubt, something like
a real translation was attempted. The
only instance at all in point which at
present occurs to me is the name long
hereditary in the Mccarthy family,
SRrbrethach, which O'Donovan trans
lates "noble judge" and which is To-
represented by Justin. But as a rule
the ear or the eye was the only guide to
the metamerphosis. Thus Conor (Con-
chobhar), was, and is, by the generality
of Irishmen, supposed to be the irish
of Cornelius, and Laoiseac the Irish of
Lucius, and Feidhlim the Irish of
Felix. So in Scotland, Angus
(Aonghus) is invariably translated
Rneas and Eachan, Hector. Even
Walter Scott, who ought to have
known better, falls into this mistake.
In the "Fair Maid of Perth" in des-
cribing the famous encounter in which
Harry Cow "fought for his own
hand" he makes the old Highland
foster father exclaim, death tor Iec-
tor" Now, "bas" undoubtedly does
mean death, but Eaehan has not even
50 much. connection with Hector as
Monmouth has with Macedon. How
ever this may be, the fact is undoubted
that the vast ma, ority of the christian
names of foreign origin now borne by
the Irish are supposed by the people
who bear them and use them to be
merely the English" "a term which of
course includes Greek, Latin and
French) of old Gaelic names which are
invariably substituted for them when
those people are speaking Irish. 1t
would be tedious to give a list Of these
names. But a few may be noticed.
In the reign of Charles III it first
came to be discovered, and has since
been universally believed in Ireland,
that Calbhach, Cormac and Cathal are
strange to say. all three of them. the
undoubted Irish for Charles. From
Tarlough (Toirdhealbach) has been
naturally derived the now familiar
Terence. Teige (Tadhg) has been
translated to Timothy. Jeremiah, COM
monty shortened to Jerry, and Darby
are both understood to be good Eng
lish for Diarmuid. Brian has become
Bernard and Barney. Aodh has for
centuries al ways been translated Hugh
as a christian name and when it forms
part of a urname is now to be found
variously corrupted, as, for example,
Magee, Mckay, Hughes, hewson. So
much for these old Gaelic christian
names. But the translation of sur
names is a serious affair. When, for
example, O'Mulligan (O'Maolagain
translates himself to Baldwin (Maol-
bald), he lays a mighty dangerous trap
for the ~aftercoming ethnologist, who
will be very apt to mistake this shame
faced Gael for a bluff Saxon. Now,
this sort of thing has for centuries been
going ON in Ireland, and is still to an
almost incredible extent. Sometimes
it is done in perfect good faith, and
with no thought of deceit or misrepre-
sentation. Fhe present writer was
lately told by a miller in the county of
Kilkenny, where the Irish language
DIRECTLY nearly extinct now was very
commonly spoken forty or fifty years
ago, that he had on one occasion to pay
and take a receipt from a mechanic
whom he had known all his life by some
Irish name, let us say MACEDONIAN. The
man wrote out his receipt but signed
his name Smith. Elbow is this ?"
asked the miller ; 81 thought they
called you MACEDONIAN ?" $50 they, do,
sir" replied the man." shut l am
writing English now" So here was a
perfectly innocent change of name. The
man had no intention to deceive. He
had merely meant to translate his name
from Irish to English, as he had trans
lated the other words which he EN-.
ployed in writing out the receipt. That
mans descendants probably all go by
the name of Smith at the present day,
when Irish has died out of the district.
So in like manner we may reasonably
infer that the majority of the other
English trade names, as we may call
them, now e~xistingi in Ireland-the Car
penters, Coopers, C%hapmen, etc.-are
mere translations from the Gaelic. So.
too, with the color names-the Blacks.
the Browns this name is, however,
sometimes merely a corruption of Mac
Brehon, son of the judge, the Whites,
the Greens, etc. l remember, indeed,
to have come across a "Green of
.Greenan,' or, as it is more commonly
uttered, GrennaD. This opposition,
however, did not WEIGH very much with
me, for 1 remembered that Grennan,
the Anglicized form of Grianan, is a
very common name as applied to a cas-
tie in Ireland, and has nc connection
whatever with the name of Green, but
is derived from Grian, the Sun, Means