The Surname 'Morne'

[Gobbiner]

Thanks for the PDF copy of the Matteson book, found it to be very enlightening as it suggests that it is possible for the Moran surname to develop over time into other similar sounding names.

[hallmark]

Not over time but at same time too.....

[Maiden Stone]

Not over time but at same time too.....

Examples of this happening stuck in my mind for 2 other Irish surnames.
One had a different spelling in each of the 20 parishes in Lancashire where they settled.
A household return for 1911 Irish census has 2 spellings of the family's surname. The names had been written in different hands and inks. I assume one person had begun filling in the form, was interrupted and put it aside and someone else finished it, perhaps in a hurry when they saw the census collector approaching the door.
I pronounce Moran with emphasis on 1st syllable. (Rhymes with Horan.) If a person mumbled the second syllable or said it quickly, it would sound like "Morn".
Where did your Mourne come from?

[hallmark]

Even is same household I have 4 sisters who used 2 different spellings for their Surname

2 always used one and 2 always used the other throughout their life and knew what they were doing!

So, which 2 were right and which 2 were wrong??

None of them!

[Elwyn Soutter]

In his Special Report on Surnames in Ireland, published in 1909, Mathieson includes numerous examples of variation in the spelling of surnames which depended on the whim of the holder. “Some years ago the marriages of a brother and sister in the same family were solemnized in a Registrar’s office. The son gave his surname as “Faulkner” and his father’s name as “Faulkner.” The daughter gave her surname as Falconer, and her father’s surname as Falconer. Both marriages were subsequently re-solemnised in a place of worship, and the same orthographical differences were found to exist in the records kept by the officiating Minister.”