May 13th, 1890:The first official attempt to analyse surnames in Ireland was made by Robert Matheson in 1890 with his Analysis of Surnames and Forenames in Ireland, which listed the hundred most common names, beginning with Murphy, Kelly, Sullivan, Walsh and Smith. The Irish Times welcomed it with this editorial.
FROM THE excellently officered department of the Registrar-General there has just been issued a most interesting work, exhibiting the varieties and synonyms of surnames and Christian names in Ireland, intended for the guidance of registration officers and the public in searching the indexes of births, deaths and marriages.
Those especially who belong to the legal profession have heretofore found a difficulty in tracing patronymics of persons. . . while entirely different names are used by the same individual or members of the same family.
The duty of collating the perplexing list has hitherto been shirked; a circumstance, perhaps, not to be wondered at, considering the labour involved and the thankless character of the task. It is true that the Census Commissioners of 1851 made an effort to provide such a compilation, which was, however, given up when partially completed; but what we have now before us is the first scientific attempt to trace and harmonise the changes of nomenclature and to simplify investigation of records daily in use.
There have been cases where the variations were of such a nature as completely to throw names out of their natural place in the index, and thus prevent discovery if searched for in the ordinary way.
Mr. Robert E. Matheson, Barrister-at-Law, Secretary of the General Register Office, has with great skill and assiduity . . . taken up this troublesome work, and the treatise which now appears under his name is the most deliberate essay that has ever been made to solve the problem.
The explanatory chapters which preface the alphabetical list of surnames will engage the attention of the literary scholar as well as of the professional searcher, for, as Mr. Matheson observes, “apart from the official purpose for which they have been prepared, the indexes form a most interesting study. Like the figures in the kaleidoscope, names are continually changing, old names dropping out and new ones appearing.”
We are reminded that none but those engaged in registration work can appreciate the difficulties encountered by persons searching the indexes owing to the variation of Irish names . . .
There are furthermore the influences of time and illiteracy – potent factors in producing perplexity. Mr. Matheson . . . has succeeded in making plain many obscure points which hitherto have exasperated the searcher. With this treatise in hand the greater difficulties are swept away. It is a work of great importance, and little inspection will be required to convince the professional man and the general public of its value.
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