why did irish immigrants change their last names?

Answer 1

Many Irish that left for America and Canada spoke Irish as their mother tongue and had little or no English and when they arrived the immigration officers just wrote down an approximation of their real Irish language name and made it fit into England spelling. If the people had a name written in English orthography already before they arrived it was because they either already changed over to the English language from the Irish one or the English at home in Ireland gave them that name to Anglosize them.

Irish people were discriminated both in Ireland and when they arrived. They just wanted to fix in and work so that they could earn enough to survive.

Examples are:

Ó Braonáin -> Brennan
de Brún -> Browne
Ó Coileáin -> Collins
Ó Cinnéide -> Kennedy
Ó Murchú -> Murphy
Ó Raghallaigh -> O'Reilly
de Bhailís -> Wallace

In an Irish name:
Ó = grandson of / descendant of
Mac = son of
Ní = granddaughter of / descendant of
Nic = daughter of
de = of (Norman-French orgin)

Answer 2

Irish Immigrant Names

Answer 3

1) to find work when jews took over the songwriter business the irish
composers were forced to change their irish sounding names and
would then gain employment by collaborating with their jewish fellows.
The new wave from Russia pushed aside what was once all irish.

Answer 4

Mine changed theirs from McQuilly to Cox in order to sound more English.
The Irish were looked down upon for years in this country (US) and I guess the English were more respected, at least in their way of thinking.

Answer 5

I live in Canada, Irish grandmothers, both sides of the family.

Here, my dad told me that lots of Irish died on the boats leaving kids orphans to be adopted by French Canadian Families. They insisted to keep their name.

My grandmother's name (birth) Elizabeth Carroll, my dad:Carroll Legault (French dad), me Carole Elizabeth and very proud!

Answer 6

THE 1ST ANSWER IS TRUE