1890-91.] SURNAMES AND PLACE-NAMES, THE ISLE OF MAN. 107 



they are leaving out the essential letter in Mac, and that Mor c could 

 with far greater impunity be omitted. Indeed, in certain parts of 

 Scotland M or MJi in Mac or MJiac is silent in colloquial conversation, 

 and ac alone is audible, e.g., Iain ac a' Phearsuinn. 



Mr. Moore avers that surnames in Europe may generally be divided 

 into four classes : 



1. Those taken from the personal names of an ancestor, 



2. Those taken from trades and occupations. 



3. Those which originally indicated place of birth or residence. 



4. Those which were originally descriptive of a person's appearance or 



character or residence. 



It has been ascertained that of the surnames which are now in use in 

 Man, 6% per cent, are purely Celtic. Any man of intelligence can 

 understand, that in the early days of human civilization when books 

 were largely, if not entirely, unknown, the power of observation of the 

 people of those days was very acute and accurate ; insomuch that the 

 names which they gave to rivers and mountains, &c., had as their basis 

 an unmistakable similarity or foundation in nature itself Mr. Moore 

 has, therefore, abundant reason on his side when he asserts, that those 

 who gave the names, so far as places are concerned, considered such 

 names to be accurate descriptions of the localities to which they are 

 applied, and that they are never mere arbitrary sounds, but have a 

 rational significance. In acknowledging the authorities that aided him 

 in the preparation of his book, Mr. Moore, among other books, mentions 

 Cleasby & Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary, and the Annals of the Four 

 Masters. The latter book bears the designation of the Annals of the 

 Four Masters, because four men were prominent in the preparation of it. 

 The chief of those men was Michael O'Clery, than whom no lover of his 

 country has any where to present a finer exhibition of cheerful devotion to 

 duty, of large contentment with poverty, and of patriotic affection for all 

 that was great and good in the annals of his people. The work in question 

 was begun in Dun-na-ngall, or Donegal, on the 22nd January, 1632, 

 A.D., and was finished on the loth August, 1636. It has been truly 

 said, that no other nation has such a monument of historical learning as 

 the Annals of the Four Masters contain in connection with the history 

 of Ireland. It is stated in the book in question "that Giolla, especially 

 among the ancients, signified a youth, but was generally a servant ; and 

 hence it happened that families that were devoted to certain saints, took 

 care to call their sons after them, prefixing the work Giolla, intimating 

 that they were to be servants or devotees of those saints, and it will be 

 found that there are few saints of celebrity from whose names those 



