ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1773
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1773
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21 Jul 1999
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether the name <McConaughey> was used in Ireland in the
16th century.  Here is what we found.

Although we didn't find a reference for it, we are sure that <McConaughey>
is a modern English form of the Gaelic <mac Dhonnchaidh>, meaning "son of
Donnchadh."  There were several forms of this name in Gaelic, and each
Gaelic form was spelled in a variety of ways in English.

One of the Gaelic forms is <mac Donnchaidh>, pronounced \mahk DOHN-khee\.
\kh\ represents the raspy sound of the <ch> in <loch> or in the German word
<Bach>.  This name was recorded in 16th-century English as <M'Donnoghie>,
<M'Donaghy>, and <M'Donchie> [1].

Another Gaelic form is <mac Dhonnchaidh>, which was pronounced \mahk
GHOHN-khee\.  \GH\ is the voiced version of the \kh\ sound.  When English
speakers transcribed this name, they either recorded \GH\ as <C>, or failed
to hear it at all and duplicated the \k\ sound from <mac> to the second
word [2].  The name might have appeared in 16th century English records as
<M'Connoghie>, <M'Conaghy>, or <M'Conchie>.  The modern <McConaughey>
evolved from a source like these.

Thus, while the spelling <McConaughey> wasn't used in the 16th century,
other forms of the name were used in that period.  Which one you use
depends on the language you're using.  In Gaelic, it is <mac Dhonnchaidh>.
In English, it could be <M'Conaghy>.  In Gaelic, the name means "son of
Donnchadh", and it would have been used literally in our period.  That is
to say, the only person who would have been called <mac Dhonnchaidh> in
period is a Gaelic man whose father was named <Donnchadh>.  

If you're interested in incorporating some form of this name into a name
appropriate for period Ireland, you can find some guidance in articles in
our Medieval Names archive.  We particularly recommend Quick and Easy
Gaelic Bynames, available at
[http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/].


We hope this letter has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist
you.  We were assisted in preparing this letter by Talan Gwynek.

For the Academy,

  Alan Fairfax & Arval Benicoeur
  21 Jul 1999

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References

[1] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_
(Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. Mac Dhonnchadha.

[2] The duplication of the \k\ sound also occurred when the patronym began
with a vowel, like <MacKay>, which derives from <mac Aoidh>.  Black, George
F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New
York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Mackay