82 Prnccedincis of the Boj/al It'ish Academy. 



and Bolgraige iu Onom. Goed/ All these peoples with what seem o be 

 oeeupation-names belonged to the aithechtuaf ha; and then* vassal- rents may 

 have been paid in the products of the industries indicated by their names. 

 Cp. also Corlaraige, Corbetrige, Sciathraige," Tuath Chathbarr. 



III. Sept-names. 



52. A third order, arising out of the second or it may be out of the first, 

 and no doubt later in time, consists of sept-names in which the genitive of the 

 eponym is preceded by the word Aui, Ui, " grandsons, descendants," e.g. 

 Ui Xeill, Ui Fidgente. Indeed that this class of name belongs to a later 

 fashion of nomenclature than the collective names appears from the fact that, 

 while all the collective names originate in a purely traditional period, the 

 origin of at least a proportion of the early names in Ui can be assigned to the 

 beginning of the documentary period. 



53. In the genealogies, but not in general usage, there is a partial revival of 

 sept-names in Ui, probably in the eleventh century, perhaps due to professional 

 familiarity with the early nomenclature. In popular usage the only such 

 instance at present known to me is Iljh Laoghaire, which seems to be the 

 surname Ua Laoghaire, dative plural, belonging to a family of the western 

 Muscraige. It is now the name of a district in the west of co. Cork. 

 Surnames in Ua commence to be used in the tenth century : AU 914 — 

 Ua Maelseehnaill, 918 Ua Cleirig, 946 Ua Canannain. As titles, without the 

 fore-name, Ua Ciarda 953, Ua Euairc 953, 964, 998. Over 40 other such 

 surnames are found in this century. The statement adopted by O'Curry 

 (Ms. Mat., p. 214) that this usage was established by an ordinance of Brian 

 Boroimhe, apart from the fact that regal decrees of the kind are unknown in 

 Ireland before the Norman Invasion, is thus shown to be without foundation. 



54. As in the case of the collective names, so in the case of sept-names 

 in Ui, the eponym is sometimes feminine. Cp. Ui Bairrche, Ui Brigte, 

 Ui Duibne (cp. Corcu D.), Ui Ercae, Ui Ferba (beside Ui Firb), Ui Ochrae, 

 Ui Taisce. 



55. In my paper on the Irish Ogham Inscriptiotis, E.I. A. Proceedings, 

 vol. xxvii., p. 368, I adopted Barry's view that the Ogham ari points to the 

 sept-ancestor. Of sixteen instances there collected, fi^"e appear to be followed 

 by feminine names ; in two others the gender is doxibtfiil. Hence apparently* 

 the proportion of feminine eponyms for septs named in the Ui-fonmda was 

 much larger in early times than in the later MS. record. 



' Cp. note by Mac Fir Bliisigb on a poem at p. 55, Book of Genealogies (E.T.A.) : Dli i ndiibhairt 

 an diiaiii naeh d'' Feraib Bolg GaiJeoin na Somhiiannaigh yc. fir sin tra iarna sloiniadh ffhnelhecli. 

 Gidhedh iania Uoiitiadh coitchcnn, as aiiim dilcs dona Iri tiiathail/h remraile Fir Bolg. 



