18 June 2002
To the Carney-List
You might find this reference interesting in connection with the
discussion on
Carney-Kearny-O Catharnaigh-O Cearnaigh Surnames.
Best wishes to all,
Rhea Stagner Das
(a great granddaughter of Martha Carney Parker Stagner)
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From: THE BOOK OF SCOTS-IRISH FAMILY NAMES
by Robert Bell
Belfast, Northern Ireland: The Blackstaff Press, 1988
(first published as THE BOOK OF ULSTER SURNAMES in 1988)
(reprinted 1900, 1994, 1997)
(For sale in North America as THE BOOK OF SCOTS-IRISH FAMILY NAMES)
pages 108-109
"Kearney is common in every province of Ireland and generally derives
either from Ó Catharnaigh, meaning 'warlike', a name also made Fox (see
Fox), or from Ó Cearnaigh (cearnach, 'victorious'). In Ulster it is most
often from MacKearney, Gaelic Mac Cearnaigh, a branch of the Cenél
Eoghain. They took their name from Cearnach, a brother of Cosgrach, a
chief of the O'Hanlons in Armagh.
"The 'Kernose', erenaghs of Killaghtee in the Donegal baronies of
Boylagh and Banagh, were probably Kearneys. An alternative anglicisation
of Mac Cearnaigh, MacCarney, is found in Co. Cavan. The names Carney and
Kearney can derive from any of these names.
"The village of Kearney on the Upper Ards peninsula in Co. Down probably
marks the base of the Kearneys, one of the old pre-Norman families of
the area. They are remembered as particularly active in the resistance
to the seventeenth-century settlement. Derryharney in Co. Fermanagh was
originally Doire Uí Chearnaigh, 'oak wood of O'Kearney'.
"In south Down the name has sometimes become confused with Kearns, a
variant of the north
Connacht sept name (Ó) Kieran, Gaelic Ó Ciaráin, now numerous in
counties Monaghan and Fermanagh. Kearns also became Cairns (see Cairns)."