Patronymic : British. From the Hebrew " father of a multitude". Or son of Adam. Also Adamson.
A - C
ADAMS
Patronymic : British. From the Hebrew " father of a multitude". Or son of Adam. Also Adamson.
ANDREE
Baptismal : French. Patronymic. A form of Andrew.
BALL
Locality : (1) English. Comes from the Cornish-welsh word "bul" referring to a hill top. The Middle English word "bal" is an adjective describing one who is bald. It is also possible that Ball is a shortened form of the surname Baldwin.
(2) The Gaelic "bul" comes from "baile" meaning village or castle.
The earliest records of this name are to be found in Chester, Stafford, Devon, Derby Lincoln and Lancashire. ie; Goodwin Balle, London 1137. Norman Balle, Northampton 1296.
BEATTIE
Baptismal : " The son of Beatrice" Beattie was the Nortumbrian and Lowland Scottish form of the pet name. An abreviation of the female name Beatrix.
The following are variants of the surname and are found on the border. BATIE, BATY, BATYE, BETTE and BEATY. Beattie probably belongs to the clan "Mac Bean". The Beattie family were one of about seventy five families in volved in reiving in the border areas now known as Northumberland, Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway. Some of the other families involved in this raiding and theivery were, Burns or Bourne, Elliott, Hall, Taylor and Young. Reiving took place from about 1250 to the 1500's.
BREEN
Locality: Old Welsh, bre, Brit, briga " up hill".( Somerset)
Irish: (O) Breen, O' Braion, Mac Breen. Mac Braoin, were an Ossory Sept seated near Knocktopher in Co. Kilkenny. After the Anglo-Norman invasion they were dispersed by the Walshes. Though in 1659 they were noted as still numerous in Ossory, but the Mac had been dropped. The O'Breens (O' Braion) were the most important Sept in Medieval times in Counties Westmeath and Offaly. Their chief was Lord of Brawney. As late as 1421 O'breen of Brawney is mentioned in a contempory document with O'Connor and MacMorogh as a great chieftan of the Irish nation.
Brophy
Patronymic: Ireland. O' Broithe. "descendant of Broithe". (Leinster).
CAMPBELL
Nickname: Scotts - Gaelic, caimbeul, " wry or crooked mouth". Colin Campbell (1282) established the clan of Campbell, whose hereditary chiefs are the Dukes of Argyle.
1. Scottish Arms. 2. Irish Arms
1 .
. 2
CONDON
Patronymic: Ireland, Condu'in. from old French, a Norman name, originally de Counteton "from Counteton ( Normandy)
The North-eastern area of Co.Cork, close to the adjoining counties of Limerick and Tipperary, is called the Barony of Condons. This was named after the family of Condon which was in possesion of much of that area, their principal stronghold being the Castle of Clogleagh near Kilworth, which however lies outside actually lies outside the boundary of the said barony.
They may indeed be described as a sept rather than a family. They are not, it is true of native Gaelic stock, having come to Ireland at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion, but they always counted themselves as a sept, and as late as 1605, we find David Condon, in a letter to the Secretary of State discribing himself as "Chief of his Sept".Nethertheless, though often fighting side by side with the McCarthys and other native septs, they did not become thoroughly gaelicised like many other Norman families. However they were as Irish as any. Co Cork and south Tipperary are as expected, the homeland of the great majority of Condons today.
There was formerly an Ulster family called O Condubhain whose name was anglisised to Condon, but this is now very rare if not extinct.
CONOR / O' CONOR
Patronymic : Ireland, variations; Conner, Connor, O' Connor. From O' Conchobhair or O'Conchuir. Of the personal name meaning champion.
There are six distinct Septs with the Connaught and Kerry ones being the most prominent. Clonalis House in Roscommon County is the ancestral seat of the Connaught O' Connors, whose ancestory included eleven high kings and twenty four kings of Conaught. Ballintober Castle near Castlrea, was the stronghold of the O' Conors of Conaught from the early 14th century to the 17th century in County Kerry. Carrigafoyle castl, built in 1490 by the Cheiftan Conor O' Connor, was the stronghold of the Kerry O' Connors. (Grehan. p.46)
COYNE
(1). Patrynomic: Ireland, O Cadhain. "wild goose". (Wild goose, a term applied to Irish exiles in the 17th century, who accepted service with European armies).
(2). Occupational. Anglo-French. Coigne, Middle English Coyn, a die for stamping coins. metonymic for a coiner or minter. 13th century
COYNE : from Conaught. From the old Irish name O' Cain (O'Koin) early records in Conaught show the name dates back to 1100.
CREAGH
This name presents one of the few examples of a cognomen superseding an original surname.
The Creaghs are a branch of the O'Neills of Co.Clare, the tradition being that in a battle with the Norseman at Limerick they carried green branches with them.
The Irish word craoghach is the adjective formed from the noun craobh, a branch: Craobhach is the Irish form of the surname. This tradition is, of course, the raison d'etre of the laurel branches in the Creagh coat of arms and crest. The Creaghs were reckoned among the leading gentry of Co.Clare. The main branch for generations gave it's sons to the British Army. Those who remained steadfast Catholics were to be found chiefly in Limerick and figure prominently in its records. Several Creaghs were transplanted from Co. Limerick by Cromwell. In addition to the Creaghs of Counties Clare and Limerick, there is a branch of the same name in Co. Cork which was established there before the sixteenth century. All these branches use the same arms. Unlike the majority of old Gaelic surnames that of Creagh is not widley dispersed among all classes of the population.
