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and the modern form Carty, in Mac Carty. All these words have 

 a common root — cam — which means friend ; a word very much 

 used in ancient names, and still surviving in many. We see it 

 used in this sense in by no means an uncommon name amongst 

 us — Car Michael, which simply means the friend of Michael (the 

 archangel). There were many ancient names compounded out of 

 the Celtic word Cobh, which signifies victory ; old Gallic inscrip- 

 tions preserve it in such names as Cobnertus, Coblaunon. The 

 old form of O'Connor was O' -Con- Cob hair ; Con signifying strength, 

 and the root Cobh — victory. We have, too, in the old Irish 

 Annals, such names as Cob-flaith (victorious prince), Cob-hailt, 

 &c. Another Gallic name preserved in inscriptions is Corbeus ; 

 well, this means simply charioteer, and is preserved in many Irish 

 names — in none more distinguished than that of Mac Cormac 

 (Corb-mac), which is translated in the old glossaries, " Son of the 

 chariot "—.Corb meaning chariot. These are but a few out of the 

 many instances which might be adduced from the names of persons, 

 to show that a great part of western Europe, Ireland included, was 

 inhabited at one time by a Celtic speaking people. 



Now, let us consider for a few moments how the Celts — and 

 particularly the Irish Celts — were accustomed to impose personal 

 names. In the earliest accounts of the social condition of the 

 Irish, and from a very ancient code of Irish laws which still exists, 

 it would appear that ancient Irish society was founded upon the 

 tribal system. Each tribe of the people was originally but a single 

 family, which, in the process of time, multiplied until it embraced 

 many members and became a powerful sept. The tribes, which 

 were originally perfectly independent of each other, occupied 

 separate territories — each tribe possessing about the area of a 

 modern barony. Although every tribe had its own chief or Righ, 

 there arose among them a certain subordination to the Righ or 

 chief of the predominant sept. There was often considerable con- 

 tention among the more powerful tribes for this pre-eminence. 

 The descendants of the celebrated Niall of the Nine Hostages held 

 this honoured position for ages. Each tribe was distinguished by 

 a clan name, which was formed by prefixing to the name of the 

 progenitor of the tribe any of the following words : — 



