This Irish Genealogy site offers the Irish descendant (from New York, Canada, UK, Australia...) the chance to trace their Irish family tree and search for their surname origins and the records of their Irish ancestor's birth, marriage or death.

by Paul McCotter

Surnames from Ethnic Origin

We will begin with the last, the smallest category. Walsh/Welsh/Welch is the commonest modern Irish surname of Anglo-Norman origin, the fourth or fifth commonest surname in Ireland today. The South Welsh colony was the nearest part of the Angevin Kingdom to Ireland, and accordingly a disproportionately large element of the Irish settler population had geographic Welsh origins. Along with the Welsh based Normans and Flemings came many ethnic (Celtic) Welsh, usually, though not by any means exclusively, among the lower orders of the immigrants. Most of these men were known in French, the language of law and property, simply as ‘the Welshman’, le Walys. This has become Wallace in Scotland but Walsh et al in Ireland. In every part of Ireland settled by the newcomers we find people called le Walys, and the Walshs of today must descend from dozens, if not hundreds, of individual Welshmen. In County Cork alone a cursory glance at records of the fourteenth century indicate the existence of at least twenty distinct families of le Walys.

A similar multi-ancestral situation must explain the common occurance of the name Fleming, denoting an ethnic Dutch speaker, originally from Flanders in what is today Belgium. Many Flemings had settled in South Wales in the late eleventh century, their descendants later coming to Ireland. Also in this category can be placed the Tipperary and Dublin name English, the Louth and Connacht name French (earlier ‘le Franceys’) and the widespread, if not particularly common name Brett/Britt, indicating one of Breton origin. The most interesting of these names is surely the Cork/Waterford name Lumbard/Lombard, denoting one of Italian ancestry (the name derives from the northern Italian province of Lombardy). The first member of this family to appear was one Cambino Donati del Papa, an Italian banker and royal tax official who settled in Cork City in the late thirteenth century, and from whose brother(s) descend the later Lumbards.

Toponyms

Toponyms form a most interesting category, tracing the route of a population movement from France to Ireland spanning two centuries. The syntax of such surnames originally took the form de followed by the placename. Naturally, most toponyms of French origin originate from Normandy. In the following sample list the Irish surname is followed by its principal Irish county of association, after which is given the modern form of the placename of origin.

De Courcy (Cork) Courci Nugent (Meath/Cork) Nogent Cantillon (Kerry) Canteloup Tobin (Tipperary) St Aubyn Devereux (Wexford) Evreux Morris/Marsh (Tipperary) Mareis Mansfield (Waterford) Manneville Verdon (Louth) Verdun Darcy (Meath) Arcy Prendivill (Kerry) Frenneville Barnewell (Meath/Dublin) Berneval Not all of the French invaders had Norman origins, as evidenced by such toponyms as Rocheford/Riceford — Rochfort (Charente Maritime), and Cusack — Cussac (Aquitaine).

Many English toponyms are found in Ireland, although the ancestors in question are more likely to have been Normans, Flemings or Bretons than Anglo-Saxons, the toponyms representing the newly won English estates of the conquerers. Examples are:

Burke (Connacht/Munster) Burgh, Preston (Meath), Bermingham (Galway/Kildare) Landers (Waterford) London Dowdall (Louth) Dovedale Dalton (Westmeath) Alton Cantwell (Kilkenny) Kentwell Hennebry (Tip./W.ford) Inkborough Rossiter (Wexford) Rochester Hodnett (Cork/Waterford)Hodnet Dillon (widespread) Dilwyn Comerford (Kilkenny), Stafford (Wexford), Stapleton (Kilkenny/Tipperary)

Unsurprisingly, South Wales contributes many Irish toponyms.

Roche (Cork/Limerick/Wexford), Barry (Cork), Prendergast (Mayo/Wexford/Tip.) Kennefick (Cork/Kildare) Kenfig Stanton (Mayo/Cork) Nagle/Nangle (Meath/Cork) Angle Stacpoole (Leinster), Cogan/Goggin (Cork), Trant (Kerry) Trewent Landy (Tipperary) Llanffey Pembroke (Kilkenny) Cardiff (Leinster)

We even have Anglo-Norman toponyms of Irish origin, such as the Cork surnames Mead and Galway whose origins are obvious, the Meath name Dease, taken from the barony of Deece in the same County, and Drumgoole, from a place in County Louth.

Patronyms

Patronyms similarly cross ethnic boundaries. French examples include the Cork name Garrett and the Kildare/Tipperary/Galway name Hacket (Haket). The rare Cork surname Hankard appears to derive from the Flemish Christian name Tancard. The Wexford surname Lambert is similarly derived from a Flemish Christian name as is the Waterford Wyse (Wyzo). Many patronyms were formed from Anglo-Saxon (pre-Norman English) Christian names.

Examples are: Aylward (Waterford/Kilkenny) Aylmer (Kildare) Esmond (Wexford) Everard (Tipperary).

The Leinster patronyms Wogan (Gwgan) and Howlin (Hwlyn) are of Celtic Welsh origin. Of particular interest are that small group of patronyms preceeded by ‘Fitz’, from the French fils, ‘son of’. In this category are the names FitzGerald, FitzMaurice, FitzGibbon, FitzSimmons and FitzHarris. The Kerry surname MacElligott was originally FitzElias. Confusingly however, the Laois/Kilkenny surname FitzPatrick is not of Anglo-Norman origin but was the form adopted by the native Mac Giolla Phádraig family, anciently kings of Ossory, due to pressures of anglicisation.

Nicknames

Of rather more interest are those surnames derived from nicknames, many of which are of French origin. A sense of humour bordering on the cruel was clearly part of life at this time. From a French background come:

Pollard (Limerick) skinhead Luttrell (Dublin) otter Mortell (Cork) hammer Purcell (Limerick/Tipperary) piglet Ferriter (Kerry) butcher Bossher/Busher (Waterford) butcher Savage (Down) fat Grace (Carlow/Kilkenny) fat Dollard (Leinster) dullard, idiot Codd (Wexford) scrotum/testicles Cott (Cork) scrotum/testicles Magner/Magnier (Cork) mangonel* (*magonel: a type of military catapult for firing large stones.)

Then we have names of English background, such as the Kildare Shortall (short neck), and the Limerick Woulfe. Many nicknames originate in descriptive terms relating to hair colouring. The Munster/Leinster name Sherlocke, of English origin, is derived from ‘bright locks’ while the widespread Browne may be either English or French; the equally widespread Russell (red haired) is decidedly French while the Galway name Blake (black haired) is English. The meaning of many of these surnames occur in both English and French forms in the early records. Well over a dozen families styled le Blond occur in thirteenth-fourteenth century records from Munster, Leinster and Ulster; by the later fourteenth century we find these families using the direct English translation White. The Tipperary/Cork surname Keating derives from the Welsh term cethyn: ‘swarthy’, ‘dark featured’.

Rare Names

Many of Ireland’s surviving Anglo-Norman surnames are of relatively uncommon occurance today while at the other end of the spectrum we have the numerous descendants of the great lineages, with names of intermediate occurance in between. As late as the mid-nineteenth century bearers of these surnames were mostly still found in the same counties their ancestors had inhabited. Two examples of uncommon names may be of interest. Boyton is a place in Suffolk, and a family called Boyton first occur in association with the Tipperary town of Cashel as early as 1235. This family were prominent Cashel merchants for centuries after and gave their name to the nearby parish of Boytonrath. Several Catholic Boytons lost their lands around Cashel in the 1650s, and some families of the name can still be found in the hinterland of Cashel. The Norman de la Montaigne (‘of the mountain’) family held lands near Castlemartyr in County Cork from the thirteenth century onwards. The form ‘Mayntayn’ occurs in the 1580s in the same area, although by then the family were no longer freeholders, while today a small number of Mountain families can still be found in the area.

Common Names

Lineage is the term given by some historians to once powerful Anglo-Norman families whose numbers multiplied greatly in the centuries following upon the invasion, and whose descendants remain numerous today. The principal lineages bore the surnames FitzGerald, Butler, Burke/Bourke, Barry, Roche, Bermingham, and Power, while other surnames which might be described as lineages include Joyce, Keating, Barrett/Barratt, and Costello. The lineages descend from great lords who, from the earliest, appear to have kept concubines, often of native blood, and so had many children, legitimate or otherwise, to settle upon their broad acres. Many generations of such breeding habits saw the formation of dozens of gentry families of the same blood settled on the lands of the senior line of the family. One example, the FitzGeralds, is illustrative. Maurice Fitz Gerald was one of the original invaders of Ireland in 1169. He was a native of the colony of Pembroke in Wales and was the son of Gerald fitz Walter, constable of Pembroke from about 1097 onwards, whose castle was at Carew. This Gerald was the son of a Norman who had come over in 1066 with King William. From Maurice’s brother William descend the Carew family while from his other brother David, bishop of St Davids in Wales, come the FitzGeralds, barons of Brownsford in County Kilkenny. Maurice himself had six sons, all of whom obtained lands in Ireland. Four of these left descendants: Thomas, ancestor of the Geraldines of Desmond, Gerald, ancestor of the Kildare Geraldines, Maurice, ancestor of the Geraldine barons of Burnchurch in County Kilkenny, some of whose descendants style themselves Barron, and Robert who settled on lands in County Kerry and whose great-grandson Maurice is the ancestor of the Kerry FitzMaurices. One of the early FitzMaurices was Piers, ancestor of the Kerry Pierses.

The Fitzgeralds

The later Geraldine Earls of Desmond and Kildare, among the most powerful of Ireland’s medieval magnates, were virtually lords of independent mini-kingdoms, generously populated with various descendants, legitimate and otherwise. The Desmonds were particularly prolific. As early as the mid-thirteenth century John fitz Thomas is recorded as siring four illegitimate sons, each allegedly by the wife of a different native chieftain, three of whom were prolific themselves. From Gilbert descended the later FitzGibbons of Cork and Limerick, John was ancestor to the Knights of Glin, County Limerick, while Maurice was ancestor to the later and numerous Kerry Geraldine family whose chief is known as the Knight of Kerry. Other later offshoots of the main-line included several FitzGerald families whose lands were located in Counties Waterford, Cork and Limerick while from the Knights of Kerry descended a nest of FitzGerald gentry families whose lands were located in south-east County Cork between Youghal and Midleton. By around the year 1600 in the Counties of Kerry, Limerick, Cork and Waterford we find approximately 150 FitzGerald and FitzGibbon landowning families claiming descent from Thomas son of the first Maurice FitzGerald. These in turn must be the ancestors to the many such families found in these counties today.

Language Changes

In the course of time the original French and English spoken by the colonists was replaced by Gaelic, only to be replaced again by English in more recent centuries. The relevance of this to surname studies will be obvious. The Cork and Limerick Norman surname de la Chapelle became Suipéal in Gaelic, only to be retranslated into English in the late sixteenth century as Supple, its modern form. The surname Nugent is that of an important and once powerful Meath family of Norman origin. The Cork and Waterford Nugents however, were originally called de Wynchedon, a form that re-emerged in the sixteenth century from its Gaelic intermediate as Nugent. Another feature of Gaelicisation was that of colonial families adopting native style patronyms. Thus the descendants of the thirteenth century Connacht settler Jocelyn de Angulo (the later Nangle) became the Mac Jocelyns, Gaelicised as MacGoisdhealbh, eventually coming back into English as McCostello, from which the Mac is often dropped today. Similarly, many of the Kilkenny descendants of the Cornishman Odo le Archdeacon, who lived in the early 1200s, adopted the form Mac Oda, the later Cody. Not all such patronyms successfully replaced the original form: the Cork de Courcys later dropped their patronym MacPatrick (from the first of the line, Patrick de Courcy).

In the next article in this series we will take a brief look at the histories of the most numerous of the Irish Anglo-Norman surnames.