Roots Archive
Roots: O’Mahoney, McMahon and Vaughan
The families of McMahon and O’Mahoney are related only by the common derivation of their…
Roots: Malone and Moloney
This month’s pair of sound-alike names are Moloney and Malone. As with others that have…
Roots: O’Mahoney, McMahon and Vaughan
The families of McMahon and O’Mahoney are related only by the common derivation of their…
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Roots: O’Connor
The O’Connor name, with its varied spellings, doesn’t spring from a common source. The name arose in five areas of Ireland: Connacht, Kerry, Derry, Offaly, and Clare and split into […]
Roots: Dunne and Duffy
he names Dunne and Duffy have nothing in common except that they are derived from colors, the Dunnes from donn, the Gaelic word for brown and Duffy from dubh, the […]
Roots: O’Malley and Molloys
These two families, although unrelated, share the same origin of their names, i.e. both are thought to derive from the Gaelic word for chieftain. The O’Malley family (from the Gaelic […]
Roots: The Connolly Family
The Connolly family are an ancient sept of Ireland’s western province of Connacht. The Gaelic form of the name is O’Conghaile. The original sept dispersed and in time three separate […]
Roots: The O’Neill Family
There are several different septs of the O’Neills in County Clare (where the name is also spelled O’Nihill), in Waterford and in Carlow. The most famous of the O’Neills, however, […]
Roots: The Brady Family
The Brady family name derives from the Gaelic McBradaigh which was originally anglicized as McBrady, but the “Mc” is very seldom used in modern times. The vast majority of this […]