De-Anglicisation of Names

[slohairt]

Dia Dhuit!

The preceding posts have shown us that the transition of the Gaelic (and in a broader sense, Celtic) language naming system into the English-speaking one was quite rough and sloppy. Gaelic bears about as much relation to English as does Polish, so this is only natural.

The anglicisation of Gaelic names was done in a variety of ways. Some were correctly translated, others were mistakenly translated based on similarity of sounds, while others were rendered phonetically by Anglophone scribes. This last method was the most haphazard.

What this has done has given us a whole mess of names which really could be shortened down to a much smaller list. Names which look similar were often the same name, merely anglicised by a different person and/or in a different area. To add to the confusion, names which sounded similar in their original Gaelic form (but were unrelated) were anglicised into the same name! MacConnell is a good example. It can either be Mac Dhomhnuill, Mac Connuill, or Mac Conaill!

To add even further confusion, many people cling to the belief that their Gaelic name is somehow a different name than same one spelled with a slight difference. "I'm a MACDOUGALL, not a MACDOWELL!"

Last but not least, comes the Mac/Mc myth. Many people (especially North Americans) believe that Mac is Scottish and Mc is Irish. Or others say it is vice versa. This is a myth, plain and simple. Mc (and also M') was simply a printer's contraction of Mac. Both forms can be found in both countries.

[slohairt]

That is likely a fortunate coincidence, Turpin. For many years, Scottish scholars and particularly Clan Campbell itself had claimed that it's name came from the Latin (via Norman-French) de Campo Bello. But, alas, this is simply not true. The words cam meaning crooked and beul meaning mouth are still used today in Gaelic. (Cameron means crooked nose!) Most modern-day Scottish name scholars believe this story was made up because of two reasons: 1) an unpleasant etymology! 2) They preferred at the time to be associated with "noble" Normans rather than "barbaric" Highlanders.