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

Manx Suttnam^s,
BivicuNAS should be read Bivaiddonas. According
to him the nominative of this should be Bivaiddu,
which he compares with Beoaedh, a name which
occurs in the ' Martyrology of Donegal.' He thinks
that the termination aedh is related to the Irish acd,
now translated ' Hugh,' and that this aed, and its longer
form aidan, has driven the related form aidu, which we
have in the above compound, out of use. Mr. Kneale
remarks that Bifodon occurs in an Irish ogam. Macqui
or Macqi is the ancient form of Mac, 'son.'
Mucoi is a word which occurs frequently in ogam
inscriptions ; it has probably some connection with the
Irish mucaidh, a swineherd or owner.
CuNAVA or QuNAFA is the first part of a longer word.
On another stone close by are the words Dovai-
DONA Maqui. Dovaidona(s) is the genitive of
DovAiDU, which may be connected with aed, as
Bivaiddu.
A fragmentary inscription, at Bemeccan in the
parish of Arbory, has recently been read by Professor
Rhys as follows : Cunamagli ma[qi, etc. Cunamagli
is a genitive. There was a Breton saint called Cono-
MAGLi. A later form Conm.egyl is given in the Saxon
Chronicle as the name of one of the Welsh kings van-
quished by Ceawlin at the battle of Deorham in
A.D. 577. Its corresponding Irish forms are Conmal
and CoNMHAL, where mal probably means a prince
or hero.* Professor Rhys has also recently dis-
covered, on the back of the Macl-Lomchon cross at
Kirk Michael, an inscription which bears a strong
resemblance to the so-called * scratch ' ogams found in
Scotland and Orkney. These ogams are of later date
* For full discussion of these ogams see Manx Note Book, Nos.
8, 10, and 12,