Dear Listers, I have found another reference to the changing of the McEnerny/McInerney surname being changed to the "Bird" surname. The following is an excerpt of the history of the Septs of Ireland and the McEnerny name. Anne Marie The sept system was an integral part of Gaelic society and survived and was even propagated by the Norman invaders. The system did not survive the English invasion and colonization of the seventeenth century however, and it became a disadvantage to have a Gaelic sounding name. Anglicization: The Penal laws that were enforced by the colonists attempted to completely subjugate the Gaelic way of life. It is about this time then, that many Gaelic names changed to their Anglo equivalentor translation. This can cause confusion as many of the names were misinterpreted or misspelled. The name McEaneny for example has a number of variants including McAneny and Bird (the Irish word for bird is éan). Mac an Thomáis was converted to Holmes, Mac Gioll a Íosa to MacAleese,etc. The conversion of names beginning with Mac and Mc was even more difficult because the removal of the M sound from the name often completely changed the sound of the name.