BEGINNERS' BLAS
SLOINNTE/ SURNAMES

There are a great many surnames in the Gaelic tradition which have their origin in the trades and professions.

The same is true in English, with names such as Taylor, Cartwright, Smith etc. These surnames are usually later in origin than surnames based on personal names.

Many of these names are in Mac, ‘son of’, and are simply followed by the name of the trade or profession. This, of course, goes into the genitive in this structure. A simple one to start with is the word ‘taoiseach’, meaning leader or chieftain, upon which the surname McIntosh is based, where the Irish is Mac an Taoisigh, taoiseach having been put into the genitive. The word gabha, blacksmith, becomes Gabhann after Mac, and makes Magowan. The word maor, meaning steward of land, gives rise to Mac an Mhaoir, anglicised Weir.
Ireland’s rich Gaelic literary heritage also contributes to this pattern of surname construction. Ward comes from Mac an Bhaird, the son of the bard, and McNeilly and Maneely share an origin in the name for a poet, file. An older word for a poet or rhymer, crosáin, leads to Mac an Chrosáin, anglicised McCrossan or simply Crossan.

Two very interesting surnames following this pattern are Mac an Easpaig (McAnespie) and Mac an tSagairt (Mc Entaggart, Taggart), which have the literal meaning son of the bishop and son of the priest. In these cases, it is likely that mac denotes ‘follower of’, rather than ‘son of’.
A profession peculiar to the Gaelic tradition is that of airchinneach, sometimes anglicised ‘erenagh’, meaning the keeper of church lands, and this role was hereditary, handed down from generation to generation. Mac an Airchinnigh, son of the church steward, has been anglicised as McAnerney.
Mac an tSaoir means son of the saor, or mason / carpenter, and gives us the English forms MacIntyre and MacAteer, in which the Irish emphasis can still be heard. The misconception that the saor in this surname means free has given rise to the translated surname Freeman.

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