A number of derivations are given for the meaning of the
Irish language place name
Creachmhaoil or
Creamhchoill. In one derivation, the name is given as being composed of two Irish words:
creach (meaning "plunder") and
maoil (a hill). It is suggested that this is a reference to a place where herds of plundered cattle (the targets of thefts and cattle raids amongst the Gaels) were placed and kept. A further etymology of
creach is related to
craig, and
creag, and the English word
crag, referring to a rock or the crest of a hill; and
maol, a word referring to a round-shaped hill or mountain, bare of trees.
Patrick Weston Joyce, the pioneer of Irish placename studies, also speculated that the name in Irish was
Creamhchoill, meaning 'garlic wood'. He was unaware of the local spelling and pronunciation but confirmed in a later work that the village was called
Creachmhaoil in Irish. The name Craughwell is also used as a surname,
Ó Creachmhaoil, often
anglicised as
Craughwell,
Croughwell or
Crockwell. The surname was largely unknown outside of the southeast of
County Galway until the end of the 19th century when émigrés established themselves in
Barbados,
Newfoundland,
Bermuda,
Cornwall,
Ohio and
Berkshire County, Massachusetts. ==History==