Yes. Isle of Man, not Cornwall. Have you checked with Kathleen Chappel? I think she's still active on your list. She has some knowledge of Cornish names. I will forward this to her tonight. Gary ----- Original Message ----- From: Kernow62@aol.com Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:05 PM To: SURNAME-ORIGINS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [SURNAME-ORIGINS] GARRA Hi Gary, No, they didn't speak the same language. The Celts of Ireland, Scotland & Isle of Man spoke a Goedelic form of Celtic, whilst the Cornish, Welsh, Cumbrians and Bretons spoke the Brythonic form. This Brythonic form was the ancient British language. They are not mutually intelligible between Goedelic & Brythonic. Cornish is most closely allied with Breton. There are some words in common to both Goedelic and Brythonic, these are usually the oldest words in the language, likely dating from the period in which the Celts were in Central Europe. I am not sure it is Celtic, it is found in Cornwall from the 1327, but could have come from England. There are many places in Cornwall called Garras which probably stems from garrow meaning rough & ros meaning moorland. The reason I was thinking a Celtic origin is the existence of O'Garra and derivatives in Ireland. Jim > Reread your query. If you think it's Celtic, there's a chance that it means > rough or rude. This is just a guess. Wonder if there is a Celtic sight > where > someone would have a better idea. Cornwall and Ireland spoke the same > languages at one time. ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237