I'm looking for a little guidance from some of our Northern Ireland natives/residents. Since my 2nd great grandfather Loughlin/Laughlin/Lochran/Larkin/Luke Donnelly has been somewhat elusive, I'm hoping for some breadcrumbs to help pin him down. I'm familiar with some websites providing details about the distribution of surnames in Ireland. I have not seen anything specific about forenames/given names. A couple of researchers I have corresponded with - not from this board - have mentioned that Loughlin seemed to be a north-of-Ireland forename. FWIW Luke was probably a nickname and Lochran and Larkin were likely NY enumerators' interpretation of a heavy brogue. As we have discussed here previously, spelling was not standardized, so variations were common when so few people were literate. We have discussed previously on this board that there were ~4 "Loughlin Donnelly" in Griffiths - from Armagh, Antrim, Louth and Roscommon. Since Donnelly is such a common Irish surname, I count myself fortunate that Loughlin is uncommon, but I'm left wanting more. I did look at Matheson's Report on surnames for Loughlin/Laughlin, since his forename might have been his mother's or grandmother's maiden name, but that did not narrow my focus much. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome. Thanks in advance, Margaret Donnelly