For example, two individuals named John McEldowney might be known as "John Patsy Den" and "John Mary Philip" respectively.

The Irish is Ó h-Aodha from Aodh, a popular personal name meaning "fire". Examples include O'Reilly in County Cavan, Ryan in County Tipperary and East County Limerick, or O'Sullivan in the Beara peninsula of West Cork; or areas, such as In Tipperary, additives are particularly common among those bearing the Ryan surname. The Irish name has been widely anglicised Hughes in the north; in Cork it appears, more accurately as O'Hea. From the old Irish name Áedán meaning "little fire", a diminutive of Áed (see AODH).This was the name of an Irish monk and saint of the 7th century. This convention is not used for official purposes but is generalized in A first name may be modified by an adjective to distinguish its bearer from other people with the same name. The system can be particularly useful for distinguishing individuals who live in the same locale and who share a common surname but are not closely related. While the additive is not part of a person's official name, it may be used in a postal address, on an election register or in newspaper reports. Even the Irish forms sometimes survive in parts of the Other people are better known by their Irish name than by their English name: Often a nickname or English version of a name is used in their composition where the person would use a standard Irish form in formal circumstances.

In this case, Many Irish surnames are concentrated in particular parts of the country and there are areas where a single surname may account for a large proportion of the population. In this case, Tommy Doc might be written as Thomas Ryan (D).In Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) areas, it remains customary to use a name composed of the first name, followed by the father's name in the These names are not used for official purposes. The form of a surname varies according to whether its bearer is male or female and in the case of a married woman, whether she chooses to adopt her husband's surname. SI, IF & SGG. A female's surname replaces If a woman marries, she may choose to take her husband's surname. Heyes: Examples include Ryan Lacken, Ryan Luke and Ryan Doc. A man christened Thomas Ryan might be known as Tommy Doc and his family might be referred as the Docs. It was also borne by several characters in Irish … In the barony of Clare, Co. Galway, Mac Aodha, of the same stock as the O'Flahertys, was chief of Clann Choscraigh. Adjectives denoting hair colour may also be used, especially informally: A son has the same surname as his father. Aodh , (Irish: [i:] or Irish: [e:]), (Scottish Gaelic: [ɯ:]); (Old Irish: Áed) is an Irish and Scottish Gaelic male given name, originally meaning "fire". An alternative traditional naming convention consists of the first name followed by a double patronym, usually with the father and grandfather's names. For example, the prominent This naming system also survives to a certain extent in rural areas outside the existing Gaeltacht.

It applies to some ten septs in different areas and was also an Anglo-Norman name in Wexford. Feminine forms of the name include Aodhnait and Aodhamair. As a surname, the root or a variant may be prefixed by O, Ó, or Ui (meaning "from" or "descendant of"), Mac or Mc (meaning "son of"), or Nic (meaning "daughter of"). Mac AODHA—IV—M'Ea, MacKay, MacKey, MacKee, MacCoy, MacHugh, Eason, Hughes, Hueson, Hewson, etc; 'son of Aodh' (a common Irish personal name, now anglicised Hugh); a very common surname, especially in Ulster and Connacht.There are several distinct families so called. A formal Irish-language personal name consists of a given name and a surname.Surnames in Irish are generally patronymic in etymology, although they are no longer literal patronyms, as most Icelandic names are.

It appears in even more variants as a surname.