Many have been still farther removed from their original form by the substitution of the terminal - son for the prefix Mac-e.g., Ferguson. Most names that contain Mac are formed from a Christian name, as is Mac Aonghusa (modern MacAinsh or MacGuinness, which both derive from the forename now anglicized as Angus). Similarly, Dermot O’Tierney was simply Dermot the grandson of a man called Tierney ( Ua, later shortened to O, means grandson or, more loosely, descendant). This name, however, does not in fact imply the existence of the surname MacGorman in the 9th century but merely indicates that this Domhnall (Donnell) was the son of a man whose Christian name was Gorman. A cursory examination of early medieval Gaelic records gives the impression that surnames in the modern sense were in use much earlier, because such personal names as Domhnall Mac Gormain occur continually. The Gaelic countries were among the earliest to adopt hereditary surnames, their introduction in Ireland dating from the 11th century (with a few early ones in the 10th). Just as the latter has become initial P, as in the modern names Price or Pritchard, Mac has in some names become initial C and even K-e.g., Cody, Costigan, Keegan. Mac, Scottish and Irish Gaelic surname prefix meaning “son.” It is equivalent to the Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman Fitz and the Welsh Ap (formerly Map).
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