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Menlo or Menlough: What's in a name?

During his recent visit, Gerry Hanley of Menlo, Ireland, clarified an issue that has long vexed local historians — just how do you spell the area in Ireland that Menlo Park is named after? Menlough? Menlo? Mionloch?

Mr. Hanley explained that, in a way, all three are correct. The village home of Dennis J. Oliver and D. C. McGlynn, who named the California city, was originally called, in the Irish language, Mion Loch, or "small lake."

When British surveyors encountered Irish place names, they converted them phonetically to English — resulting in Menlough, Mr. Hanley said. However, "there is another Menlough village in the county of Galway and the use of Menlo, dropping the last three letters, makes a distinction," he said.

And the "Park?" "Menlo Park, where McGlynn and Oliver lived, is a small area within Menlo," Mr. Hanley explained.

— Barbara Wood