ALTERATION OF FAMILY NAMES IN THE GLENS By BRIAN. S. TURNER

In the glens, as elsewhere in Ireland the principal driver in changing the spelling or pronunciation of names has been the loss of the Irish language by the people. This process began with people who spoke English attempting to spell the names of those who spoke Irish and whose names were part of that language. Spelling in English by Englishmen in the seventeenth century and earlier was variable enough, to say the least. When these same men attempted to record the names of Irish people it is easy to appreciate the pitfalls they created for those used to modern spelling.

Variant spelling of names within the English language name structure is also common, but this is not particularly significant within the Glens where there are comparatively few common non-Gaelic names. The principal example involves the Robinsons of Glenarm, and mid and east Antrim generally. One might expect Robinson to be English in origin as opposed to the Scottish Robertson. However, there is evidence that some, at least, of the east Antrim Robinsons may really be Robertsons whose name has been changed by local pronunciation and customary usage.¹

This is not the place to attempt a dissertation on the whole aspect of name alteration in Ireland, examining all the possible computations of translation, mistranslation, official confusion, change of pronunciation, attraction of one name by another, or of deliberate disguise. That has been ably done in other places.² I will simply indicate some changes which have affected particular names in the Glens.

At one end of the scale there are O Neill and Mac Neill which, aside from the dropping of the accents, are spelt the same in both English and Irish. Then there are names like MacCormick, Mac Cormaic, where the alteration from Irish is very slight. In the case of McKay, MacAoidh, the spelling alteration is major but the English letters preserve the gaelic pronunciation. McCambridge, Mac Ambrois, alters both the spelling and the pronunciation of the original name because of the rationalisation into the word, ‘Cambridge,’ familiar to English ears, of the sound uttered in Irish. This instance was early established. The four McCambridges registered in the Glens’ Hearth Money Roll of 1669 all have their name regularly spelled in this manner and there has been no alteration since then. It has been said that the name has been changed to Chambers in County Antrim³, but I find no evidence of this.

Pronunciation of a Gaelic name can give rise to the adoption of a completely unrelated English word or name which sounds vaguely similar to the original. There is an example of this in the Glens in the family of Mac an Breitheamhan, ‘son of the judge’⁴, which appears in the seventeenth century as ‘McBreheny’ and ‘McKabrean.’ This name now seems to be represented in the forms ‘Abraham’ and ‘Abram.’ However, it should not be imagined that all Abrahams in Ulster are of this origin. For instance, along the south of Lough Neagh where the name is most common they are English in origin.

Change from one language to another has given rise to parallel translation of all or part of particular names. This has already been examined in this journal for the case of Black, Mac Giolla Dhuibh.^s The name MacIntyre, Mac an tSaoir – ‘son of the carpenter’ or ‘wright,’ which is common in west Argyll, has sometimes been translated as ‘Wright’⁶. This may explain the noticeable occurrence of Wrights in the southern Glens, although in this case a connection is not established. McIntyres are found in North Antrim and North Derry but not in the Glens. Names formed from Christian or personal names are subject to the same process. The same name in its English and Gaelic forms has given rise to two familiar surnames in the Glens, Alexander and McAllister, not to mention further variants elsewhere like McElshinder, Callister, Saunderson and Sanders. In the case of the Andersons of Rathlin an anglicized form of their name has become standardised. They are different from the ‘sons of Andrew’ who are common in the Scottish lowlands and many of whom arrived in Ireland during the seventeenth century. The Rathlin Andersons are of the Islay family of Maclllandrais, Mac Giolla Andreis, who in both Islay and Kintyre have also so anglicized their name. ‘Donald Mclllenderis’ is in the 1541 Rental of Islay.⁷ On the other hand the untranslated patronymic McQuilken, also characteristic of Rathlin, is now the standard form of a name which was sometimes anglicized Wilkinson. Among some families the two forms are still inerchangeable although officially given as McQuilken. In Kintyre and Islay, where the family came from, Wilkinson seems to be more acceptable and both forms appear on the electoral register. The Argyllshire surname Mac Giolla Ghuirm ‘son of the blue lad,’ no longer occurs there but has long been anglicised as ‘Blue’ in Scotland.⁸ On the contrary, however, this translation has not been universally made in Antrim where it still occurs as Macllgorm.

The inferiority complex which sometimes gave people an almost desperate desire to make their names sound English resulted not only in translation but in mistrans­lation. The name Sharpe, although it can have an English origin, was formerly common in Bute where it was used by people whose name was MacElheron, Mac Giolla Chiarain. The probable explanation of this is a fancied resemblance between ‘heron’ and ‘gearan’, diminutive of ‘gear’ – ‘sharp. ’⁹ MacElheron is well known in the Glens although not now so common as before and not obviously connected with the Sharpes.

In many places there are names which sound and look familiar but which in fact have derived from a source other than that accepted as generally true for a majority in other places. Connolly is a Glens example. This name is common in Ulster and is most readily associated with the south of the province, and with Monaghan in particular where it represents the Irish O Conghaile. It seems likely however, that Connollys in the Glens, and perhaps in other parts of north Antrim, derive from the family of Macllchonnelie of Kintyre.^[1] In Kintyre this is now anglicized as Conley. The spelling Conly is rare but still current in the Glens, and the juxtaposition of gravestones in Glenarm Church of Ireland graveyard indicates that there it has been interchangeable with the spelling Connolly which, as the usual Irish spelling, and pronunciation, has attracted the Scots form to itself. It may be suspected that Craig as it is found in Rathlin is not the lowland Scots toponymic common in south and east Antrim but represents the name found there and in Culfeightrin in the seventeenth century as ‘McCreig.’¹² The Cusacks who are most common around Armoy are more likely to be Maclsaac or MacKissack, of which there were Kintyre families,¹² than to be related to the Norman family of Cusack of Leinster. The Macoshenags of Lephenstrath, harpers to the Clan Donald in Kintyre, also appear as Maclnshannoch in the sixteenth century.¹³ They changed their name to McShannon. Andrew McKerral stated that the root was Gaelic sean, ‘old’ but gave no evidence. The two individuals called ‘Mc a Shanog’ in the Ardclinis Hearth Money Roll of 1659 need not be from this source but nevertheless they suggest a much more likely derivation for the Macoshenags. ‘Mc A Shanog’ is most likely the well known Irish Mac atSionnaigh, ‘son of the fox.’¹⁴ In Glenravel the change from Mac atSionnaigh was lately within memory — ‘The Protestants became Shannon and the Catholics called themselves Fox.’¹⁵ This is not the only Ulster derivation of Shannon but seems valid in the case of the Glens.

Some spellings are unusual forms of familiar names, for example, McGreer in place of McGregor. And it is only within the last generation that the spelling of McCaughan has been standardised in Antrim. In the past it has had several forms and in the nineteenth and early twentieth Centuries it was commonly McCahan. This spelling has now disappeared from North Antrim although variants still exist in County Derry. In many places spelling variation in particular names is deliberately perpetuated in order to call attention to difference in religious denomination, but this is not so in the case of the North Antrim MacCaughans who all adopted the same form.^[2]

This is not an exhaustive listing of surname alteration in the Glens but is merely an illustration of the types of change which have occurred. I hope it may modestly demonstrate the value of local study in refining general knowledge and exploring the variety of our inheritance.

Notes and references:

1. Two eighteenth century armorial gravestones in Larne Parish churchyard and at Raloo bear the name Robinson, but the arms of Robertson of Muirtown in the county of Elgin. See Bigger, Francis Joseph and Hughes ‘Herbert ‘Armorial Sculptured Stones of the County Antrim’ in: Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 4 (Second series, 1900): 99 and 172.

2. MacLysaght, Edward,’ Irish Families’ (Dublin 1957), chapters 2 and 3.

3. Mac Giolla Domhnaigh, Padraig, ‘Some Anglicized Surnames in Ireland’, (Dublin 1923) followed by others.

4. MacLysaght, Edward,  ‘The Surnames of Ireland’, 19, (Shannon 1969).

5. Turner, Brian S. ‘Notes on the Blacks and McCurdys of the Glens and Rathlin’. In: The Glynns, 14 (1986): 25—27.

6. Black, George F. ‘The Surnames of Scotland’, 519, (New York 1946).

7. Rentals of Kintyre, Islay, Jura, and Colonsay in 1541. In: ‘The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland’,       xvii: 625—642 (Edinburgh 1897).

8. Black, George F., op. cit. 83.

9. Hewison, James King, ‘The Isle of Bute in the Olden Time’, 1: 139 (Edinburgh 1893). Black, George F., op. cit. 512.

10. McKerral, Andrew, ‘Kintyre in the Seventeenth Century’, 163, (Edinburgh 1948)

11. Hearth Money Roll, County Antrim, 1669. Typescript. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, T. 307.

12. McKerral, Andrew, op. cit. 165.

13. Ibid., 11 and 169.

14. MacLysaght, Edward, ‘Irish Families’, 151 (Dublin 1957).

15. Personal conversation with the late Mrs. Peggy McDonnell of Titruhan, Kilmore, Glenariff (nee Mcllhatton of Glenravel).

16. Turner,Brian S. ‘The surname MacCaughan in North Antrim’, In : ‘The Glynns’ 12 (1984): 15-17