Cremeans History

                        Surnames of County Cork

                               by Tim Cadogan

IN HIS FREQUENTLY-CITED Special Report on Surnames in Ireland (1909),
Robert E. Matheson published a list of the 27 commonest surnames in County
Cork, based on their incidence in the index of births for 1890. With
several exceptions (O'Brien, O'Connor, O'Neill), these are all surnames of
County Cork 'origin', but it should be noted that only 12 of the 27 do not
occur among the commonest surnames in at least one other county. While
there has been no systematic modern study undertaken on numerical
strengths, there is no evidence to suggest that the surnames at the top of
Matheson's list have changed, but there is crude evidence - based on column
inches in the Cork (021) telephone directory - to suggest that changes have
occurred in the order below the top three.
A different perspective on Cork surnames is provided by Diarmuid
O'Murchadha in his authoritative Family Names of County Cork (1985). In
setting out to provide essay-length sketches of the history of County
Cork's principal families, O'Murchadha focused on the families which
influenced Cork history in the early modern period and whose history was
reflected in documentary sources. The criteria for his selection of the 50
surnames treated in his study excluded four of Matheson's top 27. On
grounds of origin, he excluded O'Brien, O'Connor and O'Neill, and he
reluctantly was forced to exclude Kelleher only because the surname lacks a
documented historical profile on a par with other families included.
Matheson and O'Murchadha in combination provide a list of 54 'Cork'
surnames, but even that list excludes a plethora of surnames, both
indigenous to County Cork and relatively numerous, e.g. Linehan, Horgan,
Lucey, Coakley, Dennehy, Deasy, Keohane and Minihane to mention but a few.
At a further level of incidence, Matheson identifies 16 surnames which
appear in the 1890 birth index for County Cork only. Many of these are
surnames that provided the minimum five entries in the 1890 index, thus
meriting inclusion in Matheson's principal list of surnames in Ireland.
These Cork-only names include Anglin, Bransfield, Dullea, Lordan,
Motherway, Santry - all surnames that are still extant and flourishing in
County Cork.

Origins
The historic origins and movements of many of the principal Cork family
names is conjectural, but, perhaps surprisingly, several of the most
numerous are relative latecomers to County Cork. The MacCarthys, the
O'Sullivans and the O'Callaghans, all of Eoghanacht Caisil stock, migrated
southwards into Counties Cork and Kerry in pre-Norman times, ousted from
their original lands in Counties Tipperary and Limerick by the aggression
of the Dál Cais. The O'Donovans similarly were displaced from what is now
County Limerick and by the thirteenth century had re-established themselves
in West Cork. The Crowleys, believed to be originally of Connaught origin,
were likewise late arrivals, who carved out a territory in the Dunmanway
area of West Cork. The MacSweeneys, gallowglass or professional soldiers,
were introduced from the north by the MacCarthys as late as the fifteenth
century. From longer established tribal groupings in County Cork, such as
the Corca Laidhe, the Muscraighe and the Eoghanachts of the Cork region,
emerged such family names as O'Driscoll, O'Leary, Cronin; Murphy; O'Mahony
and O'Keeffe, respectively.
The invasions of Norsemen and of Normans and the plantations of both
Elizabethan and Cromwellian times are also represented in the mosaic of
County Cork surnames. Cotter (from MacOitir, 'son of Ottir') is now the
only family name of Viking origin numerous in County Cork. The Coppingers,
for centuries a significant force in Cork history, and also of Norse
origin, are no longer numerous in County Cork. The Norman influence is
significant however. Walsh, Barry, and Fitzgerald all feature in Matheson's
list of most numerous surnames and, other Norman surnames such as Roche,
Condon, Barrett, Nagle and Cogan could not be excluded from the roll-call
of Cork names. Though the sixteenth and seventeenth century plantations
have added great variety to the range of Cork family names, only one such
surname - Kingston - can be considered very numerous in the county.
Nonetheless, surnames such as Good, Beamish, Swanton, Sweetnam, and Shannon
are still common among the farming communities of south-west Cork.

Rarities
The decline, disappearance and survival of some of the more uncommon Cork
surnames is an interesting study. Skiddy, a surname of Norse origin,
prominent in Cork municipal office up to the seventeenth century and
reduced to three persons in Griffith's Valuation (c.1850), now appears to
be extinct in County Cork. Hungerford, of plantation stock from the
seventeenth century and respectably represented in Griffith's Valuation
with 25 entries, appears, nonetheless, to be now extinct in the county
also. Likewise, Lavallin, notable seventeenth century land owners and still
represented by eight entries in Griffith's, c.1850; Notter, a surname still
prominent in the Mizen Peninsula in the late nineteenth century, but
extinct in the county since the death some years ago of local historian and
genealogist Isaac Nash Notter; and Shipsey, a prominent name in 'Carbery's
Hundred Isles' in the early twentieth century, though this latter surname
and family still survive in Ireland. Shipsey, incidentally, is given a most
original, probably apocryphal, derivation, according to West Cork
tradition.
The first Shipsey, the story goes, was a shipwrecked foreign sailor, whose
only intelligible words to his rescuers were 'ship, sea'.
Conversely, some uncommon Cork surnames survive where others have
disappeared. Northridge, of West Cork seventeenth century plantation
origin, identified by Matheson as occurring in Cork only, appears to be as
numerous today as it was in 1850, when it merited ten entries in the
Primary Valuation returns. The exotic sounding Shinkwin, deriving from the
English name Jenkin according to MacLysaght, appears to be in decline from
its nineteenth century level, but is still, happily, extant in Cork.
Incidentally, all 16 of the surnames identified by Matheson as occurring in
Cork only in the 1890 birth indexes are still extant in County Cork and in
most cases have spread further afield as a result of twentieth century job
mobility and internal migration.

Geographical Distribution
The geographical distribution of family names in County Cork as late as the
mid-nineteenth century (as evidenced in Griffith's) and to some degree up
to the present day, is influenced by the historical territorial boundaries
of the families. From a practical genealogical viewpoint, however, several
of the commoner Cork surnames, are, and have been for generations, too
widespread in the county to make any generalisations. However, O'Sullivan
and Harrington are still strongly represented in Beara, where they were the
dominant surnames in the last century; O'Donovan, O'Driscoll and O'Mahony,
more widely spread nowadays, were core West Cork surnames in the nineteenth
century. Herlihy and MacSweeney are associated with the mid-Cork Lee
Valley, while O'Callaghan, Roche, Nagle, MacAuliffe and O'Keeffe are
resonant of North and North East Cork. Barry and Cotter, though widely
distributed, have strong associations with the barony of Barrymore in east
Cork. The less common Cork surnames, however, have strong geographical
connotations. Cadogan invariably has its roots firmly on the West Cork
coast around the Ilen estuary. Verling is synonymous with the barony of
Barrymore and specifically the Cobh area. Nyhan is native to East Carbery,
where the great majority of Lordans will also find their ancestral roots.
Garde, Loughlin and Sliney are surnames that immediately suggest the barony
of Imokilly in east Cork. The tendency to become more widely spread over
the county and further afield is less marked in these less common surnames,
which even today retain a very strong regional, even parochial connotation.

Secondary Surnames
The division of families such as MacCarthy, O'Donovan, etc., into branches
was a common and well-established feature of the more prominent families.
Thus, among the MacCarthys there were the McCarthy Mor, Muskerry and Reagh
branches, while the main branches of the O'Donovans were Clan Cathail and
Clan Lochlainn. However, at a level below this formal division, the use of
various nicknames was adopted to distinguish different families in an area
where the surname might be very common. Peadar O'Donovan on his Irish
Family Names (1991) identifies 34 nicknames or secondary surnames used by
the O'Donovans in West Cork. In Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa's Recollections
(1898; 1972) in 'A Chapter on Genealogy', occurs the following passage: 'My
great-grandfather Donnacha Rossa was married to Sheela ni Illean - Julia
O'Donovan-Island. They had six sons. Those six sons married into the
following families: Dan's wife, an O'Mahony-Baan of Shounlarach; John's
wife, a Callanan of East Carberry; Den's wife a McCarthy-Meening of East
Carberry; Conn's wife, an O'Sullivan Bua'aig; Jer's wife (my grandmother),
an O'Donovan-Baaid ...'
Many of these secondary surnames appear in records such as the Primary
Valuation and survive in local usage today. Some of them eventually - or
temporarily - replaced the principal surname. The surname Mountain
occurring in Griffith's Valuation in the barony of Carbery is an agnomen
for O'Donovan or MacCarthy; Crimmeen or Cremin in the same area is a
MacCarthy agnomen, occasionally becoming the adopted surname. The West Cork
surname Whooley is an example of an O'Driscoll agnomen that established
itself as a surname. The practice of using these secondary names seems to
have been more common in the western part of County Cork than elsewhere.