Irish Influence

The following text is based on research from Mr J. Jordan, Namecraft - Heritage and Heraldry.

Ireland was one of the first countries in which a system of hereditary surnames arose, they were known in Ireland long before the Norman invasions, brought English-style surnames to the country. The Irish prefixes Mac (son of) and O (grandson or descendant of) gave rise at an early date to a set of fixed hereditary names in which the literal patronymic meaning was lost or obscured. Ó Daimhín, for example, is known as a hereditary byname from the 14th century onwards. During the long centuries of English domination, Irish surnames' were crudely Anglicised.

The Irish Gaelic language was proscribed and surnames were Anglicised phonetically or by translation. At its mildest, the prefixes Mac and O' were abandoned, so that O'Manachain and Mac an Fhailghigh became Mc Nally and then Nally. At worst, Irish surnames were distorted, beyond all recognition. Thus, Mac Giolla Eoin' son of the servant of Eoin' was transmuted into Munday by confusion of the name with Irish Luain, genitive of Luan Monday. O'Daimhín became Devine. Only since Irish independence in 1921 has a reversal set in, so that Irish people are now adopting Gaelicised forms of their names, even though they may not be able to speak the Irish Gaelic language. Gaelicisation of a surname has become a statement of national and political identity, so that some whose names are actually of Norman, French or English origin nevertheless create Gaelic versions of them.