The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1890-12-20

How the Gaelic cegnomens Have Besn
Trsnsmogrinsd Into saxon.


Somebody has been making explora-
tons into the mysteries OF the Irish
family name and has discovered Won
derful thing. says the N. Y. Evening
Sum The perplexing thing about
these names Is the way In which their
Significance is obscured by the attempts
which were made during the reign Of
James /. 10 crowd out the Gaelic
names by translating them into Saxon.
Sometimes the translation persisted
aud sometimes 1t did not Often IL be-
came compounded with some Gaelic
prefix. For instances; .Gabhan" Is
Gaelic for "a smith," and "MacGab-
ham" In its modified form. McGowan
was translated Ia Smithson. So Mac
Eoghan.H which Is the Gaelic for the
son of john" became johnson. and,
where II remained untranslated. APP
pears to-day in the various form Me-
Owen. McKeon. McCune. and Ewing.
In translating the Gaelic into English
the pretixes .Mac." meaning ''son Of"
and 90" meaning n male descend
emit" were used indiscriminatsly either
for men or women. although strictly the
Gaelic feminine prefix Is mi" mean
ing n daughter Of" Thus the famous
Grace O'Malloy. rs Englishmcn OF the
sixteenth century knew her. was real
ly written in her own tongue ezra Nj
Mhaile." Fronl IN Ulster clan bearing
the patronymic "MacAodha. "signifying
tire. " come the family names Mckay.
Mackay. Mackey. M'Kee. and Magee;
the O'Hays OHeas. Hayes. Hays.
etc. having tho same derivation In
'.Aohd." tire" which Is allowably
pronounced in one OF two ways, either
like ay In day" or like ee in meet"
"Aonghus" signitied 1.-THE shrewd
one" aud is perpetuated to-day. with
the prefix Mae in Maciuness. Ma
ginnis and Guinness. Ii Is also from
the Gaelic word with certain sutiix
''aigh. and sometimes with the prefix
o. that we have the names Hennessey
and O'Ilennessey settling upon the de-
scendants thereof.
From the word 'segart." signifying
priest, we have Taggart. and Mcrag-
CERT; from ''MacPhailin. v the ''son of
/ little Patrick" we have McFadden;
from "Giola Dia. "a servant of Cod
the English Glider; from 'Giola
Christ" n servant OF Christ" Gill
christ. and from "Oiola Mhuirc." "a
servant of MARY" Gilmore. aud Gill
mer. The same prefix appears in Kill
/ patrick and Gilbride. Somewhat like
this Is the prefix .maol. meaning first
'bald. aud finally coming 10 mean
zone devoted TO. AS disciple, +" through
association with the tonsure OF tho
monks. This syllable is preserved in
Malcolm, "a disciple OF ST. Colm;"
Mallory. - disciple Of Mary Malone,
Moloney. and Muldoon.
Conner was once written Conn
chobhair, and had the hearty signiii-
canoe OF 1.-THE war-hound OF help
while Gallagher IS "Gallchohair. THE
helping stranger. McGillcuddy Is bad
enough as il stands. but one can be
I thankful even for that. remembering
that IL was first written Mac Giola
1 Mhochudha" and signited 'the son of
I 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 illiternte
both In their own tongue and la En-
/ glish, and that the only guide which
the English strangers had To the ortho-
/ graphy OF the names was the pro-
/ nuncintion OF the owner. No doubt
"TordhalDhack Mae Giola Mhochudia"
came trippingly enough from the lips
of the owner. but Is IL any wonder that
/ from Saxon lips it grew into Terence
MacG illicuddyP