Ó Creachmhaoil is an Irish

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

, often

anglicised Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

as Craughwell, Croughwell, Crockwell, and Croghwell. Several sources, including Edward MacLysaght's ''Surnames of Ireland'', associate the surname with the village of Craughwell () in

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

Etymology

''Ó'', in Irish surnames, indicates a descendant of the person whose

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

it precedes (as in ''Ó Briain'': '' escendantof Brian''). Creachmhaoil is not used as a given name in Ireland, and is instead a

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

- composed of two Irish (Gaelic) words. ''Creach'', which is related to ''craig'', and ''creag'', and the English word '' crag'', referring to a rock. Together with the word ''maoil'' (a hill). An alternate etymology of ''creach'' is ''plunder'', presumably in reference to herds of cattle, which were often targets of thefts and cattle raids amongst the Gaels. The usual Gaelic word for cattle is ''crodh'', often Anglicised in place-names as ''crow'', although the words ''cro'', ''crocharsach'', and ''crò'' are all connected with sheep, sheep enclosures or meadows. A ''maol'' is a round-shaped hill or mountain, bare of trees. It is anglicised as ''mull'', and is common in Irish and Scottish place names such as the Mull of Kintyre. The complete toponym is used, today, to connote the village in Galway, but may have been adopted from a nearby hill. The village is too small to have been known far afield, and the surname is largely restricted in Ireland to County Galway. ''Ó Creachmhaoil'', therefore, is presumably a

toponymic surname A toponymic surname or habitational surname or byname is a surname or byname derived from a place name,

adopted by villagers from Creachmhaoil (meaning "of Creachmhaoil") upon their moving to other areas.

History

The surname was largely unknown outside of the south-east of

, where the

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

of Craughwell (''Creachmhaoil'') is located, until the latter end of the 19th century. At that time, emigres established branches of the family in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and Devonshire (where it is sometimes mistaken for a variant of the surname Crocker),

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, in

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Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and Berkshire County and

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. The surname (rendered ''Cragwell'', ''Crockwell'', ''Crogwell'', ''Crachuell'', ''Crackwell'', ''Crackwill'', ''Crockwill'', ''Crockwile'', ''Crachwell'', and ''Crickwell'') evidently arrived in

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

in the 17th century (probably as part of the involuntary Irish immigration to Barbados that followed the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland)/ The Crockwells of Bermuda may descend from a single Barbadian who settled there in the 19th century, that spelling now appearing to be extinct in Barbados, possibly as a result of re-emigration.

People

Notable bearers of the name include American painter Douglass Crockwell, Irish senator Gerard Craughwell, Bermudian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

referee, Carlyle Crockwell, Bermudian footballer Mikkail Crockwell, Bermudian cricketer Fiqre Crockwell, and English cricketer Leslie Crockwell.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:O Creachmhaoil Surnames Surnames of Irish origin Irish families Irish-language surnames