RyanCatney wrote:
Hello everyone,
I've been wondering about finding an Irish translation for my surname, de-anglicizing it if you will. I've already done the family tree as far back as possible (given the documentation limitations in Ulster), and the spelling has been pretty consistent.
My surname is Catney (in some older genealogical sources such as Griffith's, spelled Cattney). It seems to be a fairly uncommon last name and I haven't been able to find a credible translation elsewhere.
I have seen the following Irish translation of my surname on Facebook: Chaitniadh
If possible, an Ulster Irish translation would be preferred as my comes form County Down, but a Standard Irish translation would also work as well.
Thank you for any assistance,
Ryan
MacLysaght's "Surnames of Ireland" has no entry for Catney or Cattney, or anything close. I checked online and the usual sources all seem to dodge the issue of name origin, but I did find this site:
https://books.google.com/books?id=0AyDDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA456&lpg=PA456&dq=Catney+surname&source=bl&ots=ixqALUGyUF&sig=1BigZ_68G745K_4lWzQtpcDtdYQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw7rGrxJfZAhUUwWMKHUfIDAw4ChDoAQgrMAE#v=onepage&q=Catney%20surnamewhich indicates that it may be an English toponymic name. The source surmises that the name comes from some lost place name which may also have given rise to the place names Catwick and Catfoss. Interestingly, the name is apparently more common now in Ireland (pretty much only in Down and Antrim, I noted from another site) than it now is back in England.
Editing to say that the link I gave somehow broke, so I've edited it a bit and that seems to work. The passage it leads to is from The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, edited by Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, & Peter McClure. The names are alphabetically arranged there, and Catney is one of the entries. A later section of the book says that Catney can also be a variant form of the surname Courtney.