It's All In The Name!

According to Ancestry.com, the anglicized form of Gaelic for my last name, which is Sullivan, is “Ó Súileabháin.” I feel that I should start spelling my name this way, in keeping with my desire to get back to my roots. It’s so much more interesting and mysterious than the way I’ve spelled it all these years. “Sullivan” is the Irish “Smith,” meaning that it’s ubiquitous. (No offense, Dad or Smiths out there including my patient, sainted childhood piano teacher.)

Furthermore, if it had been up to me, I never would have dropped the “O,” from “O’ Sullivan.” If we had kept that one special and perfectly round vowel, set apart by the apostrophe, it would have been a fantastic way to emphasize my family’s independent, Celtic spirit. After all, I have the red hair of an Irish girl, so why shouldn’t I have the “O”?

But alas, we lost four good vowels and three accent marks when we changed things. Everyone knows accent marks make a name sound complicated and important. If a special symbol is required, which is hard to locate on a computer much less to speak, people know that the name must be prestigious, for all the effort it requires. Sullivan - and I sigh here - just rolls off the tongue.

I wonder what Súileabhán, whom I take my surname from and am a descendant of, would think of all of this conformity. Does he shake his head in disbelief over how we've strayed so far from the good old days before 601? We’ve roamed too far from County Tipperary. He has not been able to keep his súil or eye on us, a word that is linked to the meaning of our name. (It could mean one-eyed, which makes me feel even worse. We’re his heirs, causing tears to flow from the only eyeball he has. We should be ashamed of ourselves).

Or perhaps I have it wrong. Maybe the one thing I begrudge about my last name, it’s commonness, would fill him with unbridled glee. Roughly translated Ó Súileabháin means, “grandson of” Súileabháin. Clearly, for these clans, bloodlines were on the brain.

Like Abraham, his descendants are like stars in the sky. Maybe he would feel God had favored him and smile. We are all bright lights carrying on his name. On the other hand, he might want us all to band together in an army and conquer something.  We’ll never know.

But all I want right now is the “0,” in my name back, which I feel is rightfully mine. After all it means “descended from,” so it would be a slight to dear, sweet or perhaps domineering Súileabháin, to leave it out. It is about who and where I am from.  This blog is part of a learning process. No conquering yet, except for belting down a pint of Guinness when I get the chance.