From Nora: A Biography of Nora Joyce by Brenda Maddox
(Nora Barnacle was the wife of James Joyce)
"In the west of Ireland Barnacle was a common enough surname. It was derived from 'barnacle goose', a large seabird which lives in the Arctic wastes and visits British and Irish estuaries in the winter. The name, however, is better known in the English translation of its original Irish form: cadhan (or O cadhain). This became O'Cadhain, then Kane, O'Kane and Coyne. There were Kanes and Coynes aplenty in Nora's Galway just as there were other Barnacles. Today the name survives in the west of Ireland as Barnicle.
Among the many tributes to Nora in his (James Joyce's) work are the many, often hidden, references to seabirds and geese, which he tucked into the text, much as medieval monks wove their favorite flowers and animals into their illuminated capitals. Among the notes for Finnegans Wake, he scribbled 'glorious name of Irish goose'.''