In Irish townland nomenclature, the element "cill" almost always points to an early ecclesiastical site, a small church or monastic cell, often long vanished, with only a burial ground persisting in the landscape to mark where it once stood. That appears to be the case here, on the Kerry countryside south-west of the Shannon estuary, where a recorded burial ground survives in the townland of Kilcusnaun without any accompanying church structure still visible above ground.

Burial grounds of this type, sometimes called cilliní or early medieval ecclesiastical enclosures depending on their character and use, are scattered across Kerry in considerable number. Some served early Christian communities from the sixth century onwards, gathered around a founding saint or local holy figure whose name was absorbed into the place. The second element of Kilcusnaun may preserve a personal name, possibly that of an obscure local saint, though without further documentation it is difficult to say with certainty who Cusnaun was or when they lived. What is clear is that someone considered this ground sacred for long enough that it entered the landscape record as a named and bounded place.