Blair Collection > Surnames & place-names of the Isle of Man

36 Manx Surnames.
Part II. — Surnames derived from Personal Names of
purely Native Origin.
We now come to the Celtic patronymics formed
from personal names of purely native origin. As many
of these are capable of being translated, being originally
significant of personal qualities, it is often difficult to
distinguish between the regular names and the mere
nicknames, whose derivatives in family nomenclature
are discussed in the following chapter. In making
this distinction our guide must be the old Irish records,
which give us some of these words as regular names,
while others appear only as descriptive epithets
appended to the names. Several of these native
names were borne by persons who attained the
honours of saintship, and thus, like other hagiological
names, give rise to secondary formations with the
prefix Giolla.
Crow, or Crowe, is a translation of Mac Fiachain,
' Fiachan's son,' the personal name Fiachan
meaning ' Crow.'
' Fiachan, Lord of Conaille . . . died A.D. 787.'*
On the inscribed crosses we find Fiac, ufaac
or o'faac, i.e., probably, tea feic, * the descen-
dants of Fiac and (Ma)lfiaac, possibly Mal-fiach,f
' prince raven ' (Fiachan being the diminutive of
Fiac).
The Mac Fiachains were one of the minor fami-
lies of the English Pale who complied with the
Statute 5 Edward IV., by which it was enacted
* Four Mast., Vol. I., p. 395.
t Mdl is more probable in this context than Afae^.