Amongst the many strange derivations given of the name of Mona or Man (the
island), I find one in an old unpublished MS. by an unknown author, of the
date about 1658, noticed by Feltham (_Tour through the Isle of Man_, p.
8.), on which I venture to ground a Query. The name of the island is there
said to have been derived from Maune, the name of the great apostle of the
Mann, before he received that of Patricius from Pope Celestine.
Now if St. Patrick ever had the name Maune, he could not have given it to
the island, which was called Mona, Monabia, and Menavia, as far back as the
days of Caesar, Tacitus, and Pliny. I have not access to any life of St.
Patrick in which the name Maune occurs; but in the _Penny Cyclopaedia_,
under the head "Patrick," I find it said, "According to Nennius, St.
Patrick's original name was Maur," and I find the same stated in Rose's
_Biographical Dictionary_. But the article in the latter is evidently taken
from the former, and I suspect the Mau_r_ may in both be a misprint for
Mau_n_.[3] Can "N. & Q." set me right, or give me any information likely to
solve the difficulty?
I may as well notice here that amongst the many ways in which the name of
this island has been pronounced and spelt, that of _Maun_ seems to have
prevailed at the period of the Norwegian occupation. On a Runic monument at
Kirk Michael, we have it very distinctly so spelt.
With regard to the name Mona, applied both to Man and Anglesea, I have
little doubt we may find its root in the Sanscrit _man_, to know, worship,
&c., whence we have Manu the son of Brahma, Menu, Menes, Minos, Moonshee,
and Monk. The name Mona would seem to have been applied to both islands, as
being specially the habitation of the Druids, whose name probably came
either from the Celtic _Trow-wys_, wisemen, or the Saxon _dru_, a
soothsayer, very close in signification to the Sanscrit _mooni_, a holy
sage, learned person. As connected with this idea I may ground another
Query: Might not these two Monas, the abode of piety and wisdom, be the
true, [Greek: makaron nesoi], the _Fortunatae Insulae_ of the ancients?