In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the Irish families increased, and their territories were divided into two and three parts among rival chieftains of the same family, each of the chieftains adopted some addition to the family surname for the sake of distinction. Thus, among the O’Conors of Connaught we find O’Conor Don, _i. e._ O’Conor the brown-haired, and O’Conor Roe, or the red-haired. This distinction was first made in the year 1384, when Torlogh Don and Torlogh Roe, who had been for some time in emulation for the chieftainship of the territory of Shilmurry, agreed to have it divided equally between them; on which occasion the former was to be called O’Conor Don, and the latter O’Conor Roe. (See Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Charles O’Conor). It is now supposed by many of the Irish that the epithet Don postfixed to the name of the chief of the O’Conors is a Spanish title! while those who are acquainted with the history of the name think that he should reject it as being a useless sobriquet, and more particularly now, as there is no O’Conor Roe from whom he needs to be distinguished. It is true that the O’Conor Don might now very lawfully be called the O’Conor, as there is no O’Conor Roe or O’Conor Sligo, at least none who take the name; but as he had borne it before O’Conor Roe disappeared, we would not advise it to be rejected for another generation, as we think that an O’Conor Roe will in the meantime make his appearance, for we are acquainted with an individual of that name who knows his pedigree well, but is not sufficiently wealthy to put himself forward as an Irish chieftain.