Besides the surnames, or hereditary family names, which the Irish people assumed from their ancestors, it appears from the authentic annals that most, if not all, of their chieftains had attached to their Christian names, and sometimes to their surnames, certain cognomens by which they were distinguished from each other. These cognomens, or, as they may in many instances be called, sobriquets, were given them from some perfection or imperfection of the body, or some disposition or quality of the mind, from the place of birth, or the place of fosterage, and very frequently from the place of their deaths. Of the greater number of these cognomens, the pedigree of the regal family of O’Neill furnishes examples, as Niall Roe, _i. e._ Niall the Red, who flourished about the year 1225, so called from his having red hair; Hugh Toinlease (a name which requires no explanation), who died in 1230; Niall More, _i. e._ Niall the Great, who died in 1397; Con Bacach, _i. e._ Con the Lame, who was created Earl of Tyrone in 1542. Among the same family we meet Henry Avrey, _i. e._ Henry the Contentious, Shane an Dimais, _i. e._ John the Proud. Of the cognomens derived from the places in which and the families by whom they were fostered, the pedigree of the same family affords several instances, as Turlogh Luineach, so called from his having been fostered by O’Luney, chief of Munterluney in Tyrone; Niall Conallach, so called from his having been fostered by O’Donnell, chief of Tirconnell; Shane Donnellach, so called from his having been fostered by O’Donnelly (An Four Masters, 1531 and 1567); and Felim Devlinach, so called from his foster-father O’Devlin, chief of Munter-Devlin, near Lough Neagh, in the present county of Londonderry. Various examples of cognomens given to chieftains from the place or territory in which they were fostered, are to be met with in other families, as, in that of O’Brien, Donogh Cair-breach, who was so called from his having been fostered by O’Donovan, chief of Carbery Aeva, the ancient name of the plains of the county of Limerick. In the regal family of Mac Murrough of Leinster, Donnell Cavanagh was so called from having been fostered by the Coarb of St Cavan, at Kilcavan, near Gorey, in Hy-Dea, in the present county of Wexford. This cognomen of Donnell has been adopted for the last two centuries as a surname by his descendants, a thing very unusual among Irish families. In the family of Mac Donnell of Scotland, John Cahanach was so called from his having been fostered by O’Cahan or O’Kane, in the present county of Londonderry.