The Island of Man is one of the nearest and greatest of all those islands, those Irish in those times were called Scots, and Ireland itself was called Scotia major, ye greater Scotland, and it was these Scots yt did inhabit Man; in ye reigns of Arcadius and Honorius, Cambden saith, truly, but presently after these Scots were driven out of all Bnittagh countries and islands by Cuneda, ye grandfather of Maglocunus, whom Guildas, for ye havock he made in those islands, termeth him the Dragon of the Isles; after this came our King Arthur, and after him Edwin, king of Northumbers, both which reduc'd all the islands into their subjection, and in them planted British inhabitants, with great reason, therefore, may we receive the testimony of Joselinus: yt at ye conversion of the Island of Man by St. Patrick it was Britania subjecta – a British Isle.

In Modern Europe, it is to the surnames, rather than to what we call the Christian names, that this illustrative value principally belongs. A complete and accurate account of the family nomenclature of any European country-an account including the etymology of each individual surname, and the locality and approximate date of its first appearance -would tell us not a little respecting the ethnological elements existing in the population of the country, the proportions in which those elements were represented in different districts, and the habits and occupations of the inhabitants during the period in which surnames came into existence.

In the case of any of the larger countries of Europe, however, it is scarcely necessary to state that no complete history of family names has ever been written. The surnames of the Isle of Mann have not, as yet, been systematically studied, but the small extent of the Island, its isolated position, the comparatively stationary character of its population (before the present century), and the abundance of documentary material, are all circumstances which are favourable to the investigation of the subject.

As might be expected, the names of Irish derivation form the largest class. The Scandinavian epoch is represented by a considerable number of names inherited from the Vikings. It is noteworthy, however, that in nearly every case these Scandinavian names are Celticised in form-that is to say they have received the Irish prefix Mac. Some of the older of these imported names underwent translation into the native language. the other hand, the use of the English language in the Island has led to the translation of certain native names into English and as was the case also in Ireland some families have been known both by their native Celtic surname and by its supposed English equivalent, the one or the other being adopted according as the language used was English or Manx. All words in any language but English are in Italics.

 

SELECTION OF MANX SURNAMES WITH GAELIC AND NORSE ORIGINS

 

EXOTIC SURNAMES Amongst these the first place in order of time belongs to the HIBERNICISED ANGLO-NORMAN NAMES. The Surnames which are neither of Celtic nor of Scandinavian formation, but have been introduced by immigration subsequent to the period of Norse domination. Surnames derived or contracted from personal names of purely native origin. The earliest of the Manx records is the Chronicon Manniae (A.D. 1017-1376), kept by the Monks of Rushen Abbey.

Amongst the indirect consequences of the English connexion may be reckoned the partial colonisation of the Isle of Mann by the Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland, which has given us the Hibernicised Norman surnames common in certain districts. The geographical separation of the Isle of Mann from the mother country, Ireland, caused the Manx dialect to become, in course of time, materially differentiated from the Irish speech with which it was originally identical. From the same cause many of the originally Irish surnames of the Island have undergone a degree of phonetic corruption that covers them with a disguise which can only be penetrated by a recourse to early documents. The prefix Mac has, in many cases, fallen away altogether; in other cases it is represented only by its final consonant. This is the explanation of the many names beginning with C, K, or Q. such as CALLISTER, CLAGUE, COOLE, KELLY, KILLIP, KEIG, QUIGGIN, QUILLIAM, QUALTROUGH, &c., the frequency of which is so striking to any visitor to the Island.

After the murder of the Great Earl of Ulster, William de Burgo, the third Earl of that name in 1333, and the consequent lessening of the English power in Ireland, many, if not all the distinguished Anglo-Norman families seated in Connaught and Munster became Hibernicised-Hibernis ipsis Hiberniores-spoke the Irish language, and assumed surnames like those of the Irish, by prefixing Mac to the Christian names of their ancestors. . . . Thus the De Burgos, in Connaught, assumed the name of MACWILLIAM. . . . from these sprang many offsets . . . as the MacGibbons, MacWalters, ' Members of these families settled in the Isle of Mann, particularly in the south-western portion, and Contracted their names of MacWalter and MacWilliam into Qualtrough and Quilliam .

Location-based surnames | Occupational Surnames | Patronymics and Frequency / All | To-names and Unknown

 

 


It was during this period that the formation of the surnames peculiar to the Isle of Man, such as Callister, Clucas. Killip, Quilliam, Qualtrough, &c., proceeded. At the accession of the Stanleys nearly all the Manx surnames, whatever their origin, whether purely native, Irish, Scotch-Gaelic, Scandinavian, or Anglo-Norman, had the Celtic prefix Mac, and this was still the case, as regards a large majority of the names, up to 1511, when the earliest manorial roll still in existence was written.

By 1659, the prefix had, for the most part, either disappeared altogether, or was represented by its final consonant only. Thus, for instance, McKewn had become Kewn, and later Kewin; McQuyn, Quine; MacCorleod, Corlett MacCosten, Costen, and later Costain; MacKillip Killip; MacLucas, Clucas; MacIssack, Kissack MacAlister, Callister; MacAskell, Caskell, and later, Castell; MacRenylt, Crenilt, and, later Crennell; MacWalter, Qualtrough; and MacWilliam Quilliam. There were, however, a few names such as McYlrea, McYlchreest, McYlcarrane, &c., which did not assume their modern forms of Mylrea Mylchreest, and Mylchraine, till about the middle of the eighteenth century. These names and many others, usually beginning with the letters C, A, or Q. form a personal nomenclature which is unique.


 

 

Where the syllable Mac was prefixed to personal names beginning with Giolla (" servant of"), the initial syllables have been frequently contracted into .Myl, the surname MAC GILCHRIST, for instance, becoming MYLCHREEST. Early in the 16th Century the prefix Mac was almost universal; a hundred years later it had almost disappeared. The Celtic and Celto-Scandinavian surnames of the Isle of Mann, however, belong almost exclusively to the first and second of these classes. The evidence of early documents shows that nearly all of them at one time contained the prefix Mac followed either by a Christian name or by a word denoting a trade or calling.

In Europe generally surnames may be divided, with regard to their derivation, into four classes:

(1) Those derived from the personal name of an ancestor

(2) Those derived from trades and occupations

(3) Those which originally indicated place of birth or residence

(4) Those which were originally nicknames descriptive of a person's appearance or character, or containing an allusion to some fact in his history.

It has already been stated that an attempt will be made in these pages to assign the etymology, so far as it can be ascertained, of the Celtic or Scandinavian names discussed. Many of these are derived from Biblical or Hagiological Christian names which are the common property of Europe. A considerable number of these distinguishing epithets may be found in our Parish Registers and other early documents, and as these may be fairly regarded as so much unused raw material of family nomenclature, they will be given in an appendix.

The Libri Assedationis, and Libri Vastarum, or Manorial Rolls, which commence in 1511 and have been continued at intervals since that time to the present day, form the chief source of our information till the beginning of the 17th Century, when we have the Parish Registers to refer to. The earliest Parish Register, that of Ballaugh, commences in 1598.

On the low sandy coast of northernmost Bride, Jurby, Ballaugh, and Michael, where the Vikings of old could easily run their flat-bottomed ships on shore, Scandinavian names are most common. On the southwest coast, adjacent to Ireland, we find a predominance of the Hibernicised Anglo-Norman names, borne by the descendants of the MAC WALTERS and the MAC WILLIAMS; while in the centre and on the east coast the names which came from Ireland at an earlier date and those of purely native formation are most frequent.

 

 

Anglo-Manx Family Names Occurring in the Isle of Man before the 17th century derive from the names of places in Lancashire

, Aghton, Coupeland , Halsall, Lathom, Sale (Sayle), Alcar , Cotynghin, Hampton, Litherland, Shakerley or Shakelady, Aystogh /Ayscough, Creetch, Hartle, Langtre, Samlesbury (now Sansbury), Ballard , Crosse, Haworth, Lecke, Standish, Birmingham, Assheton, Higham, Marsden, Stanley, Bradshagh, Bootle , Holland, Moore, Twynham [Domesday], Breden, Coupe, Hendull Prescott, Ughtynton (Oughtrington is just over the Cheshire border), Bydcrosse , Fryssington, Huddlestone, Preston, Whetstones  [Domesday] , Byllinge, Gremshawe, Kent, Parr, Whinrowe, Burscough, Heywood , Kenyon, Radcliffe, Worthington [Domesday], Colcat or Calcott, Haliwell , Lake, Rushton, Iveno, Kennish, Ince

 

The native portion of the nomenclature will, therefore, here be discussed under two heads: surnames derived from Christian names, and surnames derived from words significant of occupations, nationality, and other personal characteristics. Although in the Isle of Mann descriptive nicknames scarcely ever became hereditary, and therefore have contributed in very slight degree to our list of surnames, they have been and still are quite as largely used as in other countries as a means of distinguishing between namesakes!