Irish Naming Traditions

The second name was a more modern introduction, according to what I have read, arriving at a similar time to the State records in the late 1800s?

The famine had changed many things though the first name traditions continued.

There was a lot more movement in people (not famine migration) and migration to cities where you would not  be known by your name and townland / location. This also coincided with the height of British Empire and the fast growing American Empire that would match it it in the early 1900s. The conventions of these were only too obvious to Irish people at the time.

There was also asocial  status in having a middle name or initial (copying English and American) habits, sometimes using a family surname as a middle name for instance.

So my short answer would be that it was completely made up according to the aspirations of a family to honour more members of the family or for social and economic reasons?

Thanks Seamus. I am writing my Lanigan history (Ireland to Melbourne, Australia) and I find I have many unanswered queries. Bill.