This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: Patterson
I didn't know about the Irish one. Looking it up in MacLysaght's "Surnames of Ireland" I read that Patterson is "absurdly used" for Ó Casáin because casán is the Irish word for path, so Patterson = "path son". Such mistranslations are not uncommon with Irish surnames.
vote up1vote down

No replies