Woods

Padraig Mac Giolla-Domhnaigh
1923

Woods—This name is the anglicised form of a number of Irish sept names. In the district about Castlederg and other parts of North Tyrone the name McElhill (Mac Giolla-Choill); M'Ilhone in the districts about the Moy and Blackwatertown; Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, along with M'Ilhun and M'Ilhone in the latter district, have been anglicised Woods (Mac Giolla-Chomhghain).

Other names that have been anglicised Woods are:—Kilmet and Killameade (Mac Giolla-aithmeit) in Co. Longford; Mac Conchoille in Co. Monaghan (this latter name is also known as M'Gilly and anglicised Cox in S.W. Ulster); Quill (O'Cuill) in Co. Cork; M'Ilhenny, McElhenny and M'Ilhoney (Mac Giolla-Chonnaidh), a sept of the Clan Colquhoun in the Northern Counties of Ulster; Mac Giolla-choille in South-West Ulster and Northern Connacht; O'Coilligh in the Southern Counties of Connacht; O' h-Uadhaigh in Central and South Leinster; and Mac Coilleadh in Armagh and Louth.

Alphabetical Index of Anglicised Surnames in Ireland

See also Woulfe’s Irish Names and Surnames
and O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees