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Author Topic: O'BRIEN/BRIEN??  (Read 527 times)
S.O.B
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
O'BRIEN/BRIEN??
« on: Thursday 08 January 09 19:54 UTC (UK) »
Hi everyone

Could I ask whether there's an accepted reason as to why these names are so often held to be interchanged?

I realise that the sounds of names were often written as heard, but in tracing O'Brien backwards, I am finding BRIEN/BRYAN..........

..."where's the 'O'"?

or why was it added?

Please help remove these nagging doubts!!
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O'Brien
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aghadowey
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: O'BRIEN/BRIEN??
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 08 January 09 20:58 UTC (UK) »
It's quite common to find this with Irish surnames. I've traced a family from Cork where the men were known as Driscoll but the women used O'Driscoll instead and it took a while before I could prove they were the same family. The same thing happens with O'Kane and Kane.
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S.O.B
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: O'BRIEN/BRIEN??
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 08 January 09 21:13 UTC (UK) »
Aghadowey

thnx again.......

is it that O' would have meant 'of brien'/ 'of driscoll'?

And often it would fall upon the woman's shoulders to register the birth?
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O'Brien
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aghadowey
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: O'BRIEN/BRIEN??
« Reply #3 on: Thursday 08 January 09 22:21 UTC (UK) »
The prefix 'O' means 'descendant of'.
Births could be registered by the mother, the father (if married to the mother) or a person present at the birth (doctor, midwife, neighbour, etc.).
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S.O.B
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: O'BRIEN/BRIEN??
« Reply #4 on: Thursday 08 January 09 22:31 UTC (UK) »
Thnx - I do understand that....... but why would women adopt the 'O'? and what would have made it more commonly accepted?

much obliged

Steve
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O'Brien
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aghadowey
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Re: O'BRIEN/BRIEN??
« Reply #5 on: Thursday 08 January 09 22:45 UTC (UK) »
It wasn't always the woman who used O'. In some places, like America, the O' was dropped to make the surname sound less Irish.
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S.O.B
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: O'BRIEN/BRIEN??
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 08 January 09 23:55 UTC (UK) »
Aghadowey

So do you think the 'O' could even be included to make the name seem more Irish?

I hope to have found my ancestors on the Griffiths land val in Kilcoole, under the surname BRIEN, but in the 1851 & '61 census in Engalnd as O'BRIEN.

i can only suppose the parish records in the NLI will confirm....

thnx for your input
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O'Brien
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jytefas
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James and Winifred Kavanagh Abt 1925
Re: O'BRIEN/BRIEN??
« Reply #7 on: Friday 13 February 09 18:02 UTC (UK) »
S.O.B.

Mac and O in Irish Surnames

The following link will take you to an an extract From: Irish Families (Their Names, Arms & Origins) by Edward MacLysaght. Pub: Irish Academic Press. ISBN 0-7165-2364-9. First Edition 1957, Fourth Edition 1985.

http://www.heraldry.ws/info/article07.html

Kind Regards
John G.
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Kavanagh (Wexford, Dublin, Manchester Liverpool and Illinois USA)
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