De-Anglicisation of Names

[slohairt]

Dia Dhuit!

DOCKENDORF Hmmm?! Gaelic Translation: Duga Sráidbhaile? (DUG-A SRAWD-VIL-EE) Gaelic Transliteration: Doicéandórbh? OK, so that was a stretch.

MOORE When you study Celtic names, the name Moore crops up as a headache every so often! It can belong to any group, including the English. See the earlier post for a translation. If it's the Irish Moore, than it's actually Ó Mórdha (pronounced OH MORE-yA) meaning descended from the great one.

MOONEY A good Connacht Irish name: Ó Maonaigh (pronouced OH MAIN-EE) meaning descended from Maonach = wealthy.

HODDER ? Gaelic Transliteration: Hoidéir.

MOFFAT A topographical surname. Original Scottish Gaelic: Magh Fada (pronounced MY FAD-A) meaning long plain.

[Red Lioness]

Lessee, Maternal name was Beaty, supposed to be Scot/Irish and Paternal name was Vaughan. Not sure of the origin, but I've heard it's Welsh.

[turpin]

Oakley? Ballard?

Hey Kid - My last name is Ballard. Got a deep and long family tree that goes to England. On my Father's maternal side there is Irish, Welsh, and a bit of scottish (MacIver - Campbell). If you're interested in looking for a connection, PM me and I'll send you a link to Rootsweb.

[slohairt]

Dia Dhuit, A Leon Baineann Dhearg! (Red Lioness)

BEATY This is a diminutive of Bartholomew. It's a Lowland Scots name and therefore Ulster-Scots (or Scotch-Irish as some Americans say) too probably. I don't actually know if there's a Gaelic form of Bartholomew. I do know that Parlan was historically used in Ireland and Scotland as an equivalent, even though it's not really. This gives us the Scottish name Mac Pharlain...anglicised MacFarlane!

VAUGHAN 99% of the time this is Welsh. It's original Welsh form would be Ap Fychan meaning son of the little. The other 1% of the time it can be an Anglicisation of the Irish name Ó Mhócháin (pronounced OH VOEKH-AWN) meaning descended from Móchán = early one.

[turpin]

Dia Dhuit!

Moore: When you study Celtic names, the name Moore crops up as a headache every so often! It can belong to any group, including the English. See the earlier post for a translation. If it's the Irish Moore, than it's actually Ó Mórdha (pronounced OH MORE-yA) meaning "descended from the great one."

I've read the Scottish would be Muir, which is a sept of Gordon for now, because the Muirs don't have a clan chief, though they do have an Armiger.

[flairball]

Hmmm, This is quite interesting. Let's see where this one take us; Rich.

Been told it traces back paternally to Scotland, and though our families record keeping isn't very good is thought to be watered down from MacRitchie, or Ritchie.

[slohairt]

Dia Dhuit, A Thurpin!

That's right. When spelled muir, that makes it easy because it's the Lallans word for moor.

I'm not sure you'll ask, but I'll post it anyway:
(Consider it a preemptive strike! )

MACIVER Son of Iomhar (from Norse Ivarr) Mac Iomhair (IRISH & SCOTTISH GAELIC)

CAMPBELL Crooked mouth. Caimbéal (IRISH) Caimbeul (SCOTTISH GAELIC)

[Deil the Yin]

Dia Dhuit!

Walker: one who who "waulks" or treads cloth in the process known as fulling. Thus, Walker, or rather Waulker, would be a Lowland Scots name. A Gaelic translation would be Mac an tSiúbhail (IRISH) and Mac an t-Siùbhail (SCOTTISH GAELIC).

I must disagree with you strongly that Walker is a lowland name on the pointe that it is an occupational name in which many folk would both highland and lowland would take part. As further evidence I submit the existence of "Waulking Songs" sung at least in the Gaelic Hebridese... In addition I have met Walkers who were native Gaelic speakers (one "Johnny Walker" in fact). Not that there arent Walkers in the Lowlands, as well as England and Ireland, but to say that it is a Lowland name I think is very inaccurate.

I have also come across a story from a local bard to the Clan Gregor about some MacUechters (spelling?) from Balquhidder who changed their name to the closest sounding English one in order to get along with the occupiers... Thus at least one connection of Walker to MacGregor.

Anyway...just wanted to see what you came up with to double check what I've found.

Go raibh math agait (Thanks?).

[caig]

What an interesting thread.

My surname is Caig.

[freddie]

How about my name Hume ? (or the alternate spelling Home) It is believed that in olden times there was some kind of mark (tilde or umlaut) over the letter 'u', indicating the "oo" sound, and in an old charter the 'u' and it's mark somehow joined to form the letter 'o' - although the name has always been pronounced "Hume". Anyway, one school of thought is that it's from the old Scots gaelic word for a cave (modern spelling uamh I believe) but I always wondered where the first letter 'H' came from. Then under the name MacDuff I found reference to Iain Mhor nan-h-Uamh (spelling may not be correct!), 'Great John of the Cave', a son of one of the old MacDuff Earls of Fife. 'The Great MacDuff' aided Malcolm Canmore to defeat Macbeth in 1056 and granted him lands in The Lothians, which in those days included today's Berwickshire, heartland of the Clan Hume, so could this Cadet line of MacDuff have settled here, built the castle and called his territorial lands h-uamh which became Hume ?. Sounds like this story could be true after all. - What do you think.