[pummice]

Can someone enlighten me why 2 brothers might have different surname prefixes - Irish poets Seosamh Mac Grianna and Seamus O Grianna

[ari101]

Originally Posted by pummice

Can someone enlighten me why 2 brothers might have different surname prefixes - Irish poets Seosamh Mac Grianna and Seamus O Grianna

http://www.irishlanguageforum.com/vi...hp?f=28&t=4015

Supposedly Seamus took some poetic licence and used Ó for a pen name. Not sure how accurate the source in that thread is, but the family name was definitely Mac.

Ó (from), and Mac (son of) while not interchangeable, both mean the same thing (male descendent of X), and some names are translated in more than one way, just not usually in the same family.

*runs from the gaeilgeoirí for fear info is not spot on ;-)

[An gal gréine]

Séamus felt that he was correct, but he was on his own in that.
His pen-name was 'Máire'.
His local name in Rann na Feirste was Jimí Fheidhlimí.

[Imreoir2]

Originally Posted by pummice

Can someone enlighten me why 2 brothers might have different surname prefixes - Irish poets Seosamh Mac Grianna and Seamus O Grianna

They hated each other.