MACNA

[Claire Bear]

My mother in law is stuck with a birth certificate that has a mothers surname looking like 'Macna' born in Ireland.  That's it.  Can anyone tell us if Macna is an Irish surname and if so would it have been common to any particular area?
Sorry for being so dense, but we really don't have much to go on.
Many thanks
Claire

[scotmum]

This site usually picks up on most surnames found in Ireland

http://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm

but nothing is coming up for Macna.

[Arranroots]

I have family MacNae in Scotland, from the Dumfries area.

There is a story that they were on the wrong side in a battle  and changed their name for anonymity (?from McGregor), but I'm not sure that there is any basis in fact.

There is a lot of commonality in Irish and Scots surnames, due to the to-ing and fro-ing between the countries.

The circumflex accent over a letter usually means that you "give it its name", so the pronunciation would be the same.

Would be interested if you find out more!

[Claire Bear]

thanks or your help, if we get any further we'll post and let you know
Claire

[scotmum]

Claire, maybe it would help if you posted a copy of a small section of the certificate for others to have a look at.

[sandiep]

Have had the same problem tracing the name REIP  tried  your site Scotsmum  no luck as sottish census just says born Ireland no help at all!  did notice though you have Cavanagh,s in your names  John Reip was married to a Bridget Kavanagh also from Ireland.  name was spelt with C or K depending on who wrote it! 

sandie

[Claire Bear]

Put Macna into Google and found a basketball fan in Canada with the surname Macna...but maybe he was too lazy to type MacNamara!  Also came across Macha which looks similar and, as well as being the name of the Queen of Ulster, is a Chez or East German and Polish surname which I've found in modern day use with an athletics manager in America called Ken Macha.
So...anyone know where the Polish hung out in Ireland in the latter half of the 19th century??

[Claire Bear]

thought you might be intersted in what my mother in law and her newly found cousin in Australia have found re the above query...

 I thought of taking what we now had - Paul Carew, son of Tobias Carew (Mill
> Wright) married to Bridget nee Macna.
>
> I went to the Irish search site you sent me (the Irish Times)
>
> I found first that there are NO entries for Macna at all. There are,
> however, 2 only entries for McNa (thinking Bridget was probably illiterate,
> Margaret certainly signed "her mark" X), both from County Mayo. There are NO
> listed entries for Carew from Mayo, but 2 across the border in Galway.
> Tobias was a Mill Wright, and assuming that was a recognized trade at the
> time, he may be listed in one of the trade directories, one of which, for
> all Ireland, was published in 1846, around the right time (about 15 years
> after Paul's birth).
>
> Interestingly, I noticed a footnote on the page when searching Carew, about
> the origin of the name. Carew is Anglo-Norman, (try de Carew) coming to
> Ireland in the 13th century.
>

So there you go..mystery solved