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[Opinions] Three new generations of Irish ancestors
Martin...his son, Llawrence or Llaurence (though in some places it's written as Lawrence/Laurence) and Llawrence's son, Malachi. Seems Llawrence emigrated from County Clare to Australia. Malachi's son, my ancestor, came to America. I've always loved Malachi and liked Martin, but didn't know they were family names. What do you think of Martin, Llawrence and Malachi? Are any of you aware of the double "l" being commonly used in Ireland?
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I've never seen / heard the double "l" in Irish. I always assumed that was a Welsh feature.Martin, Lawrence and Malachi are all favorites of mine. Martin and Lawrence are currently underappreciated classics and I hope they catch on in the future. They have a steady-Eddie quality to them, for me.Malachi happily has shaken off the "Children of the Corn" thing and seems to be gaining popularity now. Personally I prefer Malachy to Malachi, but they are both terrific. Both sound dashing and slightly mysterious.

This message was edited 3/27/2012, 11:29 AM

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Irish has double consonant l, but not a letter ll, like in Welsh or Spanish.
http://nualeargais.ie/gnag/ortho.htm
So you wouldn't start a word or name with two ls in Irish, and therefore I'd say that Llaurence is almost certainly a mistranscription.I really like Malachy too.:) And Martin and Lawrence are also nice names.
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Thanks! Appreciate that information! :)
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ETADouble letters are also sometimes used as capitals in pre-1800 docs. I've seen this a few times in 18th-century wills, mostly with F as in this example:
http://www.scottishhandwriting.com/cmPSdou.asp
So it's quite possible that someone's seen that on a will, and thought his name was Llawrence.
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Interesting!Didn't know that about the double letters in old wills. Coolness.
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The Welsh lover in me likes the look of Llawrence or Llaurence, but I've never seen a double l name like that amongst Irish names, or that particular one anywhere before. Interesting.Not a fan of Malachi at all, but I LOVE Malachy (which I know aren't etymologically related, but they're similar looking). Changing the letter and sound at the end makes a huge difference in the color and feel of that name.Martin I have started liking quite a bit recently.
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MalachyWhen I first saw Malachi's name, it was spelled as Malachy, but various researchers on this line seem settled on Malachi. They probably aren't namenerds and may not realize Malacy is a separate, and Irish, name. I haven't seen any offical documents yet, not that spellings there can be taken as etched in stone either. I do prefer Malachi, but I'm quite open to Malachy as well.
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Oh how lucky you would be to have Malachy in your family tree!
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