It is also a groundless assumption that the chief changed his name for that of the territory after his election to the government, or that the names of either the clan or district became surnames or family names in the tenth century. Can any one believe that Brian was the name of the territory of the O’Briens before the establishment of the name O’Brien? Was Donnell the name of the territory of the O’Donnells previous to the tenth century? Was Niall the name of the principality of the O’Neills?
So much then for Mr Beauford’s general theory as put forward in the introduction to his work. I shall now proceed to show the equal fallacy of the etymological processes by which he attempts to sustain his theoretical assumptions in the work itself; namely, that the names of Irish tribes and families were derived from the situations and natural features of the territories they inhabited.
1. “CLANN CUILEAN, or the race or children of the corner of the water; called also _Hy na mor_, or the district of the sea; the chiefs of which were denominated _Mac na mor aois_, the sons of the elders of the sea, by contraction Macnamara,” &c.
Now, what will be thought of all this etymological induction, when it can be proved from history that _clann Cuileain_ signifies the race of _Cullen_?
The _Cuilean_ or Cullen from whom this tribe took their name is found in the pedigree of Mac Namara, within the authentic period of Irish history, for he flourished in the eighth century, a period to which our authentic annals reach with perfect historical certainty. Let us then see how this meaning “children of the corner of the water” is obtained from the compound _clann Cuileain_. Apparently by a very simple process, thus; _clann_ means descendants, _cuil_ means _corner_, and _ean_ water; but regular as this process appears, it is nevertheless utterly fallacious, for the word _clann_ means children or descendants relatively to an ancestor, not to a _locality_; and though the name _Cuileain_ (now anglicised Cullen or Collins) when cut in two, would apparently make the words _cuil_ and _ean_, still the word is not compounded of _cuil_, a corner, and _ean_, water, for the first syllable is short, and the last syllable is a diminutive termination of the same power with the Latin _ulus_, as in the compounds _campulus_, _colliculus_, _catulus_; and the word _cuilean_, whether taken as a common noun substantive or as a proper name, is synonymous with the Latin _catulus_, or _Catullus_.