Why do some irish names have "o" at the start?

Question

Like

O'Connor

O'Hara

You get it...

Answer 1

O doesn't actually mean 'son of', it means more 'from the retinue or clan of.

Mac means 'son of',while nic would be 'daughter of'.

The Mac thing originally came from Ireland, and went to Scotland with the Scotti tribe, took over there, hence the name.  

Answer 2

Okay, here we go;

The word "mac" in irish literally means son. For example;

"Tá beirt mhac againn" (We have two sons) (the word 'mac' in this sentence is lenited, but I won't go into that-mac means son, the lenited form of mac is mhac). Mac=son, an mac=the son.

So, Mac before a name means "son of". In anglicized (English) form, Mac often turns into Mc. So, the name McMahon, in Irish, is Mac Mahúna (son of a bear; hero).

However, in Irish, that is only the MALE surname.

If a name has Mac in front of it, that means it is male. The female maiden form of Mac is Nic. So, a girl with the english last name McMahon, would have the Irish last name Nic Mahúna. If she is married to a McMahon, it would be Mhic Mahúna.

On the other hand...

O translates to "grandson/decendent of".

So, O Connell (grandson/decendent of Connell-connell IS a first name), in the irish MALE form, is Ó Conaill. The female maiden name would be Ní Conaill, and the female married name would be Uí Conaill.

In a nutshell;

Mc/Mac=son of. Female forms; Nic and Mhic.

O/Ó=grandson of. Female forms; Ní and Uí

Hope I helped clear that up a bit!

Answer 3

It means " son of" and so does mac as in MacCarthy or McCarthy

Answer 4

sorry now, but I would argue that O' means grandson or decendant of...whilst MAC, MC means son of and NI,  NIL is daughter of.

Answer 5

Shorthand for "Of"

ie "Son Of" or "Daughter Of"

Answer 6

My great great uncle was called

Patty O'Furniture

hehehe

i dunno?

Answer 7

I'm glad you posted this question as my Sirname was "Coyne" but when I visited Ireland, I discovered my father's name in Gaelic is O'Cadhain, which I suppose is the Gaelic versian of my sirname. I have often wondered what the "O" stood for, so thanks everybody.

Incidentally, I discovered that my Father's cousin was the very famous political Irish novelist, and writer Martin O'Cadhain, but I also discovered his name was also spelt O'Chadhain, and it's left me wondering what the "H" at the start means???

Answer 8

my name is O'Connor and the o' is there to mean 'decedent of' it goes back to irish when the names said 'son of' or 'daughter of' but when changed to english it was put at 'descended of'.

and ALL irish names have a o' at the start and it is the norman and order names which don't have the o' all do these are common in ireland

Answer 9

Means son of

So my anglicised name, Nicholson, would be O'Nichol

Answer 10

It's all to do with who drank the Protestant soup.......

Answer 11

because of its irish meaning!!! for example mac is son in irish so maccarthy means son of carthy!!! i dont know what o means but its the same idea!!

Answer 12

it means of, just like D' in italian, and Von in Germanic. Second parts refer to Towns or the fathers name.

Answer 13

reading all these answers, and I have to comment.

The O is a reference to being the son of, however, a girls name would be Ni, meaning daughter of.

It is an Anglisied version of the Gaelic, and the English language does not differentiate between sons or daughters, so the Ni is dropped in the English name version. but remains in the Gaelic.

meaning a boy would be O Hara, but a girl would be Ni Hara.

Answer 14

It gives the person time to remember the name. Hello Your name is O          Toole            yes i remember now.

Answer 15

O is an entire word. It isn't short for anything!

It means "from"

While Mac or Mc comes from "Mac" or "Mhic" which means "Son"

Answer 16

Like others have said, it does not mean "son of".  It means "descendant of".

Answer 17

It means "son of"

this web site gives more details :-

http://www.dochara.com/stuff/surnames-ga...