Hello Beara Listers: I have a question.... I realize there is a Gaelic translation of the clan names ( i.e. Seer...tradesman, boatbuilder, carpenter etc) But I was wondering if anybody knows if clan names evolved because people: A. Were from the same blood line (family) or... B. Were from the same area (neighborhood) where people developed a particular craft/skill. ....or is it a combination of the above. Thank you in advance for your ideas and opinions. David

Clan names involved Race and area. They were first names as we use first names. There were small clan names and large clan names. Large like Clan na Rory or Clan Cian where many smaller clans were ruled or like the Seven Sept's of Leix they were freemen who came together as one in times of need. The O'Morda's ran the Septs . Clan Cian was always ran by the O'Carrolls. People who lived on a Clans land protected that Chief and the Chief  protected the people . A Chief (king) Mccarthy Mor had the O'Sullivans in his area. See it is not an easy question to answer as the Irish had many kings big and little and many Cheifs in different ranking. I was putting this into easy read mode as the names for clans were tuaths and the larger clann mo tuaths. We had a high Kingship which changed hands like our Presidents in the states. We had our own set of rules call Brehon laws and we lived many 1000 of year under these laws. The the english changed everything to the laws everyone has now. The "Mc" (mac) meaning son of or "O" grandson of were the people inside the clan who voted on the next Chief. Blood related clansmen to the chief. But many people not related lived on the different clans lands. With respect to the Chief and his blessing> so a member of a clan need not be related in blood. I hope this helped> Slan Seamus O'More --- On Thu, 10/23/08, David Sullivan <sull96@comcast.net> wrote: From: David Sullivan <sull96@comcast.net> Subject: [BEARA] Beara Clan Names To: beara@rootsweb.com Date: Thursday, October 23, 2008, 6:14 PM Hello Beara Listers: I have a question.... I realize there is a Gaelic translation of the clan names ( i.e. Seer...tradesman, boatbuilder, carpenter etc) But I was wondering if anybody knows if clan names evolved because people: A. Were from the same blood line (family) or... B. Were from the same area (neighborhood) where people developed a particular craft/skill. ....or is it a combination of the above. Thank you in advance for your ideas and opinions. David ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BEARA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message