Ó Creachmhaoil
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 The village of Creachmhaoil in County Galway, the presumed source of the surname | |
| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Word/name | Gaelic |
| Region of origin | County Galway, Ireland |
| Other names | |
| Variant form(s) | Craughwell, Croughwell, Crockwell, Cragwell, Croghwell, Crachwell, Crachuell, Crackwell |
Ó Creachmhaoil is an Irish surname, often anglicised as Craughwell, Croughwell, Crockwell, and Croghwell.[1] Several sources, including Edward MacLysaght's Surnames of Ireland, associate the surname with the village of Craughwell (Irish: Creachmhaoil) in County Galway.[1][2]
Etymology
[edit]Ó, in Irish surnames, indicates a descendant of the person whose given name it precedes (as in Ó Briain: [descendant] of Brian). Creachmhaoil is not used as a given name in Ireland, and is instead a toponym - composed of two Irish (Gaelic) words. Creach, which is related to craig, and creag, and the English word crag, referring to a rock. Together with the word maoil (a hill).
An alternate etymology of creach is plunder, presumably in reference to herds of cattle, which were often targets of thefts and cattle raids amongst the Gaels. The usual Gaelic word for cattle is crodh, often Anglicised in place-names as crow, although the words cro, crocharsach, and crò are all connected with sheep, sheep enclosures or meadows.[citation needed]
A maol is a round-shaped hill or mountain, bare of trees. It is anglicised as mull, and is common in Irish and Scottish place names such as the Mull of Kintyre.[citation needed]
The complete toponym is used, today, to connote the village in Galway, but may have been adopted from a nearby hill. The village is too small to have been known far afield, and the surname is largely restricted in Ireland to County Galway.[original research?] Ó Creachmhaoil, therefore, is presumably a toponymic surname adopted by villagers from Creachmhaoil (meaning "of Creachmhaoil") upon their moving to other areas.[original research?]
History
[edit]The surname was largely unknown outside of the south-east of County Galway, where the village of Craughwell (Creachmhaoil) is located, until the latter end of the 19th century. At that time, emigres established branches of the family in Cornwall and Devonshire (where it is sometimes mistaken for a variant of the surname Crocker),[citation needed] Liverpool, and London, in England, Newfoundland, Bermuda,[3][dead link] Ohio and Berkshire County and Massachusetts. The surname (rendered Cragwell, Crockwell, Crogwell, Crachuell, Crackwell, Crackwill, Crockwill, Crockwile, Crachwell, and Crickwell)[4][failed verification] evidently arrived in Barbados in the 17th century (probably as part of the involuntary Irish immigration to Barbados that followed the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland)/[5][failed verification] The Crockwells of Bermuda may descend from a single Barbadian who settled there in the 19th century, that spelling now appearing to be extinct in Barbados, possibly as a result of re-emigration.[citation needed]
People
[edit]Notable bearers of the name include American painter Douglass Crockwell,[6] Irish senator Gerard Craughwell,[7] Bermudian football referee, Carlyle Crockwell,[8] Bermudian footballer Mikkail Crockwell,[9] Bermudian cricketer Fiqre Crockwell, and English cricketer Leslie Crockwell.[citation needed]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Craughwell". johngrenham.com. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
- ^ MacLysaght, Edward (1988). The Surnames of Ireland. Irish Academic Press. ISBN 9781911024644.
Craughwell [..] belongs exclusively to east Galway. The village of Craughwell is in that area so the presumption is that it is a toponymic
- ^ "A Bermuda Family Tree: Crockwell". colineseaman.tribalpages.com.
- ^ "The 82-year-old railway worker still working". BBC News. UK. 30 March 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
Siggy Cragwell started working for Thameslink in 1962 at Elstree & Borehamwood Station after he moved to England from Barbados.
- ^ "Government to help Irish in Barbados?". Global Irish.
- ^ American Art Archives: Douglass Crockwell (1904 - 1968)
- ^ "Website of Senator Gerard Craughwell - Biography". Archived from the original on 10 July 2015.
- ^ Thompson, Colin (29 June 2015). "Tributes to former top referee Crockwell". The Royal Gazette.
- ^ "Mikkail Crockwell". Thomas Terriers. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013.