Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-12-12
IRISH FAMILY NAMES.
How tho Gaelic Cognomens Have Besn
- Transmogri1ed Into Saxon.
8omebody has been making euAlora.

@omebody has been making eNGlOra-
tons into the mysteries Of the''Ifish
family name and has discovered won
derful thing., says the N. Y. Evening
Sun. The perplexing thing about
these names is,the.way in which' theit.
Significance is obscured by the attempts
which were made during the reign Of
james II. 70, crowd out the, Gaelic;
names by TRANSMITTING into SASoh
Sometimes the translation persisted
and, sometimes it did not. Often it be-
came compounded with some Gaelic
prefix. For instance: "Gabhan" is
Gaelic for "a smith," and "MacGab-
ham" in it's modified form. MCGOWAN
was translated in Smithson. So Mac
Eoghan," which is the Gaelic for the
son of john" became johnson, and,
where it remained untranslated, APP
pears to-day in the various form Me-
Owen, McKeon. McCune, and Ewing.
In translating the Gaelic into English
the prefXes "Mac," meaning ''son Of"
aud co." meaning "a male descend
ent," were used indiscriminately either
for men or women. although strictly the
Gaelic feminine prefix is mi" mean
ing "a daughter Of" Thus the famous
Grace O'Malley, as Englishmcn of the
sixteenth century knew her. was real
ly written in her own tongue ezra Nj
Mhaile." From an Ulster clan bearing
the patronymic" MacAodha, "signifving
'tire, come the family names Mckay.
Mackav. Mackey, M'Kee. and Magee;
the O'Hays, O'Heas, Hayes, Hays,
ETC.. having the same derivation in
"Aohd," lire" which is allowably
pronounced in one of two ways, either
like ay in day" or like &c in meet. ="
"Aonghus" signiiied 1.-THE shrewd
one," and is perpetuated to-day. with
the prefix Mac" in Macinness. Ma
ginnis and Guinness. 1t is also from
the Gaelic word with Il certain suilix
"aigh," and sometimes with tho prefix
o, that we have the names Hennessey
and O'1ennessey settling upon the de-
scendants thereof.
From the word "segart," signifying
priest, we have Taggart, and McTag-
CERT; from 'MacPhaidin. the ''son of
little Patrick" we have McFadden;
from "Giola Dia. "a servant of God. ="
the English Glider; from "Giola
Christ" "a servant of Christ" Gill
christ, and from "Oiola Mhuire," ~
servant of Mary" Gilmore. and Gill
mer. The same prefix appears in Kill
patrick and Gilbride. Somewhat like
this is the prefix ''maol," meaning first,
bald" and finally coming to mean
zone devoted to, as disciple, " through
association with the tonsure of the
monks. This syllable is preserved in
Malcolm, "a disciple of st. Colm;"
Mallory, "a disciple of Nary Malone,
Moloney, and Muldoon.
Conner was once written Conn
chobhair," and had the hearty signii-
canoe of 1.-THE war-hound Of help"
while Gallagher is 'Gallchohair, ''the
helping stranger. McGillicuddy is bad
enough as it stands, but one can be
thankful even for that, remembering
that it was first written Mac Giola
Mhochudha" and signitied 1.-THE son of
st. Mochudha's servant" The great
changes that have slipped into all the
names no doubt grew out of the fact
that the Gaels were wholly illiterate
both in their own tongue and in En-
glish. and that the only guide which
the English strangers had to the ortho-
graphy of the names was the pro-
nunciation of the owner. No doubt
''TordhalDhack Mac Giola Mhochudia"
came trippingIy enough from the lips
Of the owner, but is it any wonder that
from Saxon lips it grew into Terence
licuddyP