O’Connor, O’Reilly, O’Shannon, O’ My God?
I have always wondered this secretly and have never asked my Irish American neighbors why the O.
Ah to be sure! there must be a good reason…
So Irish friends… Why O’Why is their an O before some names?
It’s a contraction of “Of”, so I’ve been told, which is why the apostrophe.
IANAI (I am not an Irishman), but I believe it’s a shortening of “of” - as in “son of”, just as Mc / Mac in Scotland.
On occasion it could be “of” as in “who comes from”…
It’s a patronymic affix from “ua”, which means “descendant of.” Sort of like the -son in “Davidson.”
Pravnik’s correct, but Pierre72, Mac is actually an Irish prefix meaning ‘son of’ that migrated to Scotland with the Dalriadan Scots, but manyu Irish names still have it as a prefix.
So it means from…?
and Mc and Mac mean from as well but in Scottish?
Also, (going from memory from history of Scot/Irish naming conventions I studied long ago)…
“Mic” son of
“Mac” son of
“Nic” daughter of. as in Padrigin NicTorkelson, Padrigin, daughter of Torkelson
“O” son of
“U” son of. as in U’Seanin…son of Sean
“Mc” son of
Most of these are derivations of the Gaelic words, though I think that “Nic” and “U” are of Norse origins.
Ah - thanks.
That’ll teach me for generalising, eh?
I’m not entirely sure of the actual word from which it comes, but it’s derived from the Irish language, and is definitely not a contraction of the English word “of”.
BMalion, in Ireland ‘Ní’ (pronounced knee) is often used instead of ‘Nic’. I’m no Irish scholar but I always thought it had the same root as ‘iníon’ (in Ian) which is Irish for daughter. You also have ‘Uí’ (ee) or ‘Bean Uí’ which is used to denote ‘wife of’.
‘Ó’ is the Irish for ‘from’ which probably has a similar derivation to that described by pravnik. In many ‘proper’ Irish surnames Ó is used but it is represented as O’ (with an apostrophe) in anglicised versions e.g. Ó Raghaillaigh becomes O’Reilly.
Phlosphr In Irish, Mac means ‘son’ rather than from (Mc is an anglicised contraction). I presume Scots Gaelic is similar.
MWAP (who’s an O’ in real life and nearly failed Irish at school)
manwithaplan is correct, Ni is only used by girls and as a prefix it means daughter of.
Mac or MC means son of, but i have always been told that O’ means “grandson of…” (by an Irish person, I figured before it was just bastardised “of”, meaning “from”, as manwithaplan states…
Nope. Indeed, the apostrophe is wrong–something added by the English, who mistook a fada for an apostrophe. For example, “O’Brien” should be “Ó Brien”, likewise for “Ó Conor”, etc. But note that it’s “Mac Gobhain”, not “Ó Gobhain” for a very old and well-established Irish name. (Yes, that whole "mac is Scottish and o is irish thing is also false.) The “Ó” was originally spelled “Ua”, which means “descendent in the line”. Thus, Eoin Ó Mahoney would be a man who was a descendent of the original Irish hero Mathuin.
http://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/magazine/surname/
Oh, and the “Dalriadian Scots” didn’t immigrate from Scotland. The Dal Riada was founded by (mostly) Ulster Irish who invaded Scotland from the west.
Yes, that’s my understanding as well. “Ua” means “descendant”, or more technically, “grandson.” Brian Boru had no surname, but his grandson bore the surname “Ua Brian,” or “grandson of Brian.” Today this is “O’ Brian.”
Unmarried women: Ní is to Ó as Nic is to Mac.
Married women: Uí is to Ó as Mhic is to Mac.
Don’t worry, I can never keep it straight either 