Irish name

A formal Irish Gaelic name consists of a given name and a surname, as in English. Surnames in Irish are generally patronymic in etymology, although they are no longer literal patronyms, as is the case in Icelandic. The form of a surname varies according to whether its bearer is male or female, and in the case of a married woman, whether she chooses to adopt her husband's surname.

Epithets

A first name may be modified by an adjective to distinguish its bearer from other people with the same name. Óg "young" and Mór "great" are used to distinguish father and son, like English junior and senior, but are placed between the given name and the surname: Seán Óg Ó Súilleabháin corresponds to "John Sullivan, Jr." Adjectives denoting hair color may also be used, especially informally: Pádraig Rua ("red-haired Patrick"), Máire Bhán ("fair-haired Mary").

Related Topics:
Junior - Senior

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In former times the word Beag/Beg, meaning "little", would sometimes be used in place of Óg. For example, the grandfather of Cardinal James Gibbons (1834-1921) of Baltimore was Luke Mor Gibbons; one of his sons, an uncle of Cardinal James, was known as Luke Beg (1804-1867). This did not indicate that the younger Luke was small in stature, merely younger than his father.

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