Dear Teresa, Thanks for the refresher lesson on the Looney surname. My last "Looney" was Louisa Looney, married to James Brigham in about 1760. She was the daughter of Thomas, who was the son of the original Robert Looney and Elizabeth Llewellyn. You have inspired me to pull out Madge Looney Crane's wonderful book, and do some more studying:-). Nancy In reply to Joyce Luna's: According to Mrs. Jane Luna, on page 4 of "The Descendants of Peter Luna (1759 - 1851). Quote:" Our Peter Luna adopted the spelling Luna for his surname, said to be the old original spelling of the name." I have written to this list before on this subject, and it is somewhere in the archives in greater detail. If we assume that Peter is the son of the immigrant Robert Looney from the Isle of Man (this is not my husband's line so I don't know the proofs), the old Manx pronunciation of Looney (and current colloquial pronunciation) is close to lu-na (the "u" is as in "rule" and the "a" as the "e" in "misery"). Peter just decided to spell the name the way they pronounced it. Looney is an old Manx name derived from the Gallic Mac Giolla Dhomhnaigh, the Lord's servant, and O'Luinigh, descendant of Luinigh (which means armed). Mac Guilley Manx names once consisted of three parts, Mac=son, guilley=boy, and a saint's name. It is assumed that these people once were dedicated in some fashion to a certain saint. The names eroded down to a few syllables over time. And also spelling rules evolved over the centuries. MacGuillowny is found in 1498, Gilownie and MacLawney in 1540, Lownie and Lewney in 1623, Looney in 1644. Looney is still a very common Manx name, especially in Maughold (pronounced Mac-uld) Parish. This is taken from Surnames of the Manx, which is in turn derived largely from the definitive work, Manx Personal Names (1937). Or maybe Peter just didn't want to get the funny looks that one gets when you tell them your name is Looney. Teresa McVeigh New Orleans, LA