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Irish Name Variations

After spending a few years looking at catholic parish records in both County Mayo and South Bend, Indiana I have come to a few conclusions. First, the majority of the parish records use the Latin versions of the given name, but how they spell them varies widely. Many parish priests, especially in the County Mayo records appear to spell the given, surname and townlands phonetically in many records. They often use abbreviations I have never seen before and they may refer to the same person many different ways in the same parish records. For example, in the Bekan Roman Catholic Parish records of County Mayo, John Brennan and Catherine Slayne are referred to as John and Catherine, John and Kate, John and Kitty, Joannis and Catharine, Joannis and Catharina, and Jno and Cath. To make things even more confusing the Latin "J" was written as "I" in many records. You may see Ioannes in place of John. I have not seen a lot of nicknames used in County Mayo records, but a lot of our ancestors are known by their nicknames like Kitty, Biddy, Inez and Winnie, so I have included them with this table. The table is by no means complete, but it encompasses the given names I have seen most often in the microfilm.

Last Updated on January 14, 2011

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