The Wandering Farmer (an feirmeoir fánach)

Bloganuary writing prompt

Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.

View all responses

My first name Daren- a spelling variant of Darren, Darrin, et al, is often claimed to be a Celtic word for small oak. The ending –ín is a diminuitive, turning the root derv, darv, into a smaller form. It may also connect to Irish doirín, which meant small oak grove. You get the idea…something to do with oak! It could be from the Q-Celtic (Goedelic) or P-Celtic (Brythonic) branch.

Oak had a powerful symbolism for most Indo-European cultures. The role of acorns as a symbol of abundance, of food, gave it some weight- along with the location of oak trees being natural meeting places for man and beast alike- men, who can easily see it from long distances, or animals who come to feed on its mast, making it a prime hunting location. Such ideas lead to the word druid, believed to be from Celtic origin, as someone who knows the oaks deru-wid.

Interestingly, my parents didn’t know that the Carroll last name was from the Irish Ó Cearbhaill, and that one of the main sources of that last name actually had a large oak tree as its symbol. When the American branch of these Carrolls emigrated to America, their symbol of their lost fortunes possibly returning, was to change the crest from a great oak tree, to an oak stump with one small branch defiantly regrowing from the stump.

I haven’t taken the genetic test yet to know if we’re truly of that particular branch of Carrolls, but it could be fitting poetry if it connects.