Brown
Brown—This name in N.E. Ulster and in the North and West of Scotland is of Gaelic origin, written in that language Mac A' Bhriuthainn, derived from the Gaelic "britheamh"—a judge; hence McBrayne being its nearest form to the original Gaelic. It is written Mac Abhriuin in the Gaelic Charter of the year 1408, when Brian Vicar Mag Aoidh (Magee), the great ancestor of the Magees of N.E. Ulster, Lord of Rhinns in Kintyre, had a deed drawn up between himself and the McDonnells of the Isles. The Brownes and Browns of the West and South of Ireland, and some families in the Lothians, Scotland, are of Norman origin, the families of that name settling in Wexford, Limerick, and Galway, Dominick being a very common name in the Galway families. The most notable of the Connacht families was Admiral Browne, born in Foxford, Co. Mayo.