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Surnames

The surnames found in Ireland today reflect its rich history and the variety of people who have settled in the country. Ireland was, in fact, one of the first countries to develop a system of hereditary surnames - names, that is, which were handed down from one generation to another. They began to be widely used in the eleventh century as the population grew and first names became an insufficient means of identification.

At first, Irish surnames were formed by adding, for example, `Mac' to the father's personal name or `O' to that of any earlier ancestor. For example, `O'Neil' simply meant `descendant of Niall (Neil)'. After a while, however, other types of surnames were adopted which were not based on personal names, for example `Mac Nulty', which meant `son of the Ulsterman'.

The surnames found in Ireland today have many diverse origins. The first group of settlers who had an impact on surnames was the Anglo-Normans. They came to Ireland in the twelfth century. Although the Anglo-Normans integrated quickly into Irish society, they brought with them their own distinctive surnames. These surnames included Fitzgerald, Butler, Power and Walsh - names now numerous in all parts of Ireland.

The next important settlement occurred in the sixteenth century when large areas of land, mainly in the midlands of Ireland, were confiscated by the English government and English families were `planted' (or settled) on them. Names such as Spenser, Hyde and Browne became established in Ireland at this time. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, a much larger settlement took place when people from Scotland and England were encouraged by the government in London to purchase land in some parts of Ulster. Thousands of people took advantage of this and migrated to Ulster. These people were known as `planters'. Many of them were Presbyterians. As a result of this `plantation', names such as Graham, Patterson, Ferguson, Kerr and Stewart became numerous in the north eastern part of Ulster, particularly in counties Antrim and Down.

As English and Scottish influence spread in the seventeenth century, many old Irish surnames were anglicised. This was done in a variety of ways. Some surnames were translated into the new English equivalent or were changed to a similar sounding English name. The prefixes `O' and `Mac' were frequently dropped in an attempt to make them sound more English. Thus Mac anGhabhonn (son of the Smith) was variously rendered as MacGowan, Gowan or Smith. This process of Anglicisation occurred in a haphazard way over a number of years and gave rise to many variants in the spelling of a surname. As a consequence, a surname might assume different forms in different areas.

This has also served to obscure the real origin of the surnames. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, another group of immigrants settled in Ireland. These were the Huguenots - French Protestants escaping from religious persecution in their own country. Their main areas of settlement were Dublin, Portarlington and Lisburn. Their legacy survives in the surnames Fontaine, D'Ollier, La Touche and Refausse.

Two other important settler groups contributed to the variety of `Irish' surnames. The first of these was the Palatine Germans, who came to Ireland at the beginning of the eighteenth century and contributed names such as Switzer, Ruttle and Boveniser. The second was a large group of Jews from Eastern Europe, who also came to Ireland to escape religious persecution at the end of the nineteenth century. Their surnames are distinctive and include Jaffe, Cohen, Greenburg and Heiner.

The process of Anglicisation, combined with the fact that before the twentieth century illiteracy was widespread, means that many Irish surnames can be spelt in a variety of ways. Consider, for example, the surname Johnston. Variants of this include Johnstone, Johnston, Johnson, MacEion (son of John), MacOwen, MacKeon, and MacKeown. The surname Kearns can be variously rendered as Cairns, Carns, Cearnes, Kerns and Kearnes.

Many Irish surnames are associated with particular areas. For example, the surname McNell is found in Country Donegal, whilst O'Sullivan is traditionally associated with West Cork. In the case of unusual surnames, this can sometimes provide you with a starting point for your search. But you must not assume that all people with the same surname within an area are necessarily your ancestors. They may be, but any suspected links should, as far as possible, be substantiated by other forms of evidence.

Before commencing your family history it is vital to familiarise yourself with all the variants of the surnames in which you are interested. Make a list of the variants and refer to it when searching any indexes or records. Before this century, however, there was little standardisation in the spelling of a surname. A person baptised George Burn could be married as George Bearn and buried as George Burns. Bear in mind also that a person who was known all her life as Sophia Kelly may appear in official records as Mary Sophia Kelly.

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