who died in 971; the O'Melaghlins of Meath, the chiefs of the southern Hy-Niall race, from Maelseachlainn, or Malachy II, monarch of Ireland, who died in the year 1022; the Magillapatricks, or Fitzpatricks, of Ossory, from Gillapatrick, chief of Ossory, who was killed in the year 995," &c.

Hence it will be seen that the practice of taking up stationary surnames dates somewhat earlier in Ireland than in this country. But, as in all early family nomenclature, the Irish names fluctuated considerably for some ages subsequently to their first introduction, and names which had been borne for a generation or two were exchanged for others, thus the O'Malroni, of Moyburg, became Mac Dermot, and O'Laughlin, head of the northern Hy-Niall, Mac Laughlin. In some instances the minor branches of families changed the original prefix "O" to Mac and Mac O, or Mac I, on acquiring new territories.

"O," as we have already seen, literally means grandson; but, in a more enlarged sense, any male descendant, like the Latin nepos. "MAC" signifies son, or male descendant. "The former word is translated nepos' by all the writers of Irish history in the Latin language. . . . and the latter filius.'" The only difference, therefore, between the surnames with O and those with Mac is, that those who assumed the latter adopted the father's name or PATRONYMIC, while those who took the former, chose the designation of the grandfather, the PAPPONYMIC. The prefix Ni, meaning daughter, was formerly used with female names, as Ni Brien, Ni Connor.

Mr. O'Donovan thinks it not unlikely that at the first assumption of surnames some families "went back several generations to select an illustrious ancestor on

whom to build themselves a name." He mentions an instance of this retrospection in our own times when John Mageoghegan, Esq. of Galway, applied to king George IV for license to reject the surname which his family had borne for eight centuries, from an illustrious chief EOCHAGAN, in order that he might adopt a new name from a more antient and still more illustrious ancestor, "NIALL of the Nine Hostages," monarch of Ireland in the fourth century! If Mr. Mageoghegan could prove an authentic pedigree to that famous worthy, his family must have been more antient than that of any crowned head in Europe. But whether his genealogy was successfully made out or not, his claim was allowed, and his son and successor now rejoices in the name of John Augustus O'Neill.

A false impression prevails in Ireland that the O' is more respectable than the Mac,' whereas no such distinction really exists, inasmuch as every family of Firbolgic, Milesian, or Danish original is entitled to bear either prefix. Mr. O'Donovan proves this by the instance of a beggar having been an ‘O,' while several 'Macs' have been sovereign princes. In Connaught the gentry of Milesian descent are called O'Conor, O'Flaherty, O'Malley, &c., while the peasantry, their collateral relatives, have disused the 'O' and style themselves simply Connor, Flaherty, and Malley. The O's' are far more numerous than the 'Macs'; for in a genealogical MS. referred to by Mr. O'Donovan, two thousand of the former are found, while the latter amount to no more than two hundred.

The ground of the misapprehension appears to be this, that, with the exception of the solitary name O'Gowan, the 'O' was never prefixed to any surname derived from art, science, or trade. The cause of this rule yet remains to be discovered.

Besides these hereditary surnames, most of the chieftains of old had certain personal cognomens, as Niall Roe, Niall the Red; Niall More, Niall the Great ; Con Bachach, Con the Lame; Henry Avrey, Henry the Contentious; Shane au Dimais, John the Proud. Sometimes the sobriquet was taken from the families by whom the personages were fostered, as Shane Donnellach, so called from his having been reared by O'Donnelly; and Felim Devlinach, from his foster-father O'Devlin. All these were O'Neills by family and surname. Sometimes the cognomen was applied posthumously, and referred to the place where the individual lost his life, as Brian Chatha au Duin, "Brian of the Battle of Down."

The following observations on nicknames, written by Sir Henry Piers in 1682, in reference to Ireland, apply with equal propriety to England and several other countries, and contain an illustration of the manner in which great numbers of hereditary surnames have been acquired:

"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 the colour of his hair, as black, red, yellow, brown, &c.; and from his age, as young, old; or from what he addicts himself to, 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, that they will give nicknames per antiphrasin, 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."*

'

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the Irish families increased, and their territories underwent subdivision by the rival chieftains of the same family, each chief assumed for distinction's sake some addition to the family surname; thus there were 'the' Mac-Dermot, the head of his race, and his tributaries, Mac Dermot Roe or the Red,' and Mac Dermot Gall or the Anglicised;' again Mac Carthy More or 'the Great,' Mac Carthy Reagh, or the Swarthy,' and Mac Carthy Muscryagh, i. e. of Muskerry,' the place of his residence; and again, O'Connor Roe, the Redhaired,' and O'Connor Don, the Brown-haired.' All these additional names were perpetuated by the representatives of each branch for a long period, and even now are not extinct. An O'Connor Don not long since had a seat in the imperial parliament. It is a popular error in Ireland, that the Don' is a title of honour borrowed from the Spanish, and signifying Lord, because the O'Connor Don happens to be the chieftain of his family; whereas, as we have just seen, it is merely an hereditary epithet borrowed from a physical peculiarity of the original bearer of it.

The family nomenclature of Ireland, it will be observed, had assumed a definite shape previously to its conquest by the English. The natural result of so important an event would be some modification of it.

* Vallancey's Collectanea, vol. i, p. 113.

But history shows us that it is not always the party which is politically the stronger that exercises a modifying power upon the weaker. The laws, the manners, and even the language of the conquered often become, in the lapse of ages, those of the conqueror : in general, however, there is a reciprocating and an amalgamating influence at work, and both nations lose something of their antient peculiarities; and this to a certain extent was the case in the instance before us. Would that the blending of the races had been as complete as that of the Normans and the Saxons became on our side the water, and that the distinction between Irish and English were for ever merged, so that in names only all traces of an original diversity were discoverable! But let us return to Mr. O'Donovan's useful and interesting researches.

if

"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 not all the Anglo-Norman families located in Connaught became hibernicized-Hibernis ipsis Hiberniores-spoke the Irish language, and assumed surnames in imitation of the Irish, by prefixing' Mac' to the Christian names of their ancestors. Thus the De Burgos took the name of Mac William from their ancestor William de Burgo," from whom "sprang many offshoots, who took other names from their respective ancestors." Hence the Mac Davids, Mac Shoneens (from Johnand now changed to Jennings), Mac Gibbons, Mac Andrews, and among many others, "the very plebeian name of Mac Phaudeen,* from an ancestor called Paudeen, or Little Patrick !" "The De Exeters assumed the name of Mac Jordan from Jordan de Exeter,

* Qu. if this be not the origin of Faden?