Irish surnames starting with B

The B names in brief

• Bannon · Ó Banáin · Gaelic septs (several)
  Descendant of Banán, a diminutive of bán, ‘white’. Woulfe says there were several distinct families of the name. The best known and most numerous was that of Ely O'Carroll, in present-day Offaly, and others were seated in Mayo and Fermanagh.
• Barrett · Bairéid · Norman
  Possibly 'quarrelsome' (baraud). Bairéid, son of Baret, a name that appears in Domesday Book among landholders before the Conquest, so Woulfe takes it as most probably Anglo-Saxon and distinct from Báróid, the Cork Barretts' name. The Barretts settled in Tirawley in Mayo in the 13th century and became numerous and powerful there, later forming a clan in the Irish fashion under a chief called Mac Bhaitín Bairéid, with sub-clans called Clann Tóimín and Clann Aindriú.
• Barry · de Barra · Norman
  From Barri in Wales. Norman de Barri, probably from a Barri in Normandy, and one of the oldest Anglo-Norman families in Ireland. In 1179 Robert FitzStephen granted his nephew Philip de Barry three cantreds in Cork, now the baronies of Barrymore, Orrery and Kinelea, and King John confirmed the grant to Philip's son William in 1207.
• Beattie · Biadhtach (source) · Ulster Scots / Gaelic
  From Bartholomew — or Irish biadhtach, 'public hospitaller'. Two origins meet in this name. Woulfe gives Biadhtach, the hospitaller or public victualler — an office in Gaelic Ireland — as a family said to be of Danish descent, seated at Moynalty in Meath from early times until Cromwellian times, when Francis Betagh lost his estates, he says, by fraud and perjury; Betagh and Beatty are its English forms.
• Begley · Ó Beaglaoich · Gaelic sept (gallowglasses)
  Descendant of the little hero, from beaglaoch. Woulfe says the original name may have been Ó Beigfhile, ‘descendant of the little poet’. In the 16th century the surname was almost confined to Donegal and Cork.
• Behan · Ó Beacháin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Beachán — from beach, 'bee'. A literary family of Offaly and Laois, now spread widely through Leinster and Munster. Brendan Behan gave the name to the world twice over, as a playwright and as a legend.
• Bell · — · Ulster Scots
  At the bell, or 'the handsome' (bel). A name of the Scottish Borders, brought to Ulster in the Plantation.
• Bergin · Ó hAimheirgin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Aimhirgin, 'wondrous birth'. Woulfe traces Bergin to Ó hAimheirgin, an Offaly family who were formerly chiefs of the barony of Geashill. In speech the name was long ago worn down to Ó Meirgin and Ó Beirgin, which gave the English forms Bergin, Bergen and Berrigan.
• Bermingham · Mac Fheorais · Norman
  From Birmingham, England. Mac Fheórais, son of Piers: the Irish name taken by the Anglo-Irish Berminghams, descended from Piers or Peter de Bermingham. It also appears as Corish.
• Blake · de Bláca · Norman
  Le blac — 'the black-haired'. Le Blake, the black, from a dark complexion — a nickname that replaced the family's real surname, Caddell, which was still used as an alias in the 17th century. The Blakes were one of the Tribes of Galway.
• Bodkin · Boidicín · Norman
  A nickname from a short dagger. Bóidicín, son of Baldkin, a diminutive of Baldwin. The Bodkins are said to be a branch of the FitzGeralds.
• Boland · Ó Beólláin · Gaelic septs (several)
  Descendant of Beóllán. Woulfe names three families. One was an ecclesiastical family in Co.
• Boyce · Ó Buadhaigh · Gaelic sept & Norman
  Descendant of Buadhach, ‘victorious’; or Norman ‘de Bois’, of the wood. Woulfe calls Ó Buadhaigh a very scattered surname, most common in Donegal, Kilkenny and Cork. In Cork the final g was sounded, which gave the form Bogue.
• Boylan · Ó Baoighealláin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Baoigheallán. Chiefs of Dartraighe, the present barony of Dartry in west Monaghan, and at one time, Woulfe says, of all Oriel, before the MacMahons rose above them.
• Boyle · Ó Baoighill · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Baoigheall, 'vain pledge'. Baoigheall probably stands for baoithgheall, a vain pledge. The O'Boyles were one of the principal families of Cinéal Conaill, of the same stock as the O'Donnells and O'Dohertys.
• Bradley · Ó Brolcháin · Gaelic sept / English place-name surname
  Descendant of Brolachán, a diminutive of Brólach. In Ireland, Bradley is usually the English form of Ó Brolcháin, a famous Ulster family descended from Suibhne Meann, King of Ireland in the 7th century. Woulfe calls the spelling absurd, because it hides where the family came from.
• Brady · Mac Brádaigh · Gaelic sept
  Son of Brádach, 'spirited'. Brádach means spirited. Woulfe calls the MacBradys a great Cavan family: Mac Brádaigh was chief of Cúil Bhríghde, the country around Stradone in County Cavan.
• Branagan · Ó Branagáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Branagán — from bran, a raven. A family of the Cinéal Eoghain in Derry, Woulfe writes. The name is a diminutive of bran, a raven.
• Breen · Ó Braoin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Braon, 'sadness' or 'sorrow'. Woulfe counts several distinct families of Ó Braoin. The chief of one, descended from Maine son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, was lord of Breaghmhaine, the barony of Brawney beside Athlone; that family still lived there, though its name was often wrongly anglicised O'Brien.
• Brennan · Ó Braonáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Braonán, 'little drop / sorrow'. Braonán is a diminutive of Braon. Woulfe lists four families: the Ó Braonáin of Ossory, whose chief held Uí Duach in the north of Kilkenny, where the name is still very common; a numerous and powerful clan at Crevagh in Westmeath; a family of the same race as the O'Maddens in the barony of Longford in south-east Galway; and the Brennans of Dunkerron in Kerry, followers of O'Sullivan Mór.
• Breslin · Ó Breisleáin · Gaelic learned family
  Descendant of Breasal — the meaning of the personal name is not securely known. Natives of Inniskeel on the Fanad peninsula in Donegal, descended from the Cinel Enda. In 1261 the MacSweeneys forced them out and they moved to Derryvullan in Fermanagh, where they became brehons, hereditary judges, to the Maguires.
• Broderick · Ó Bruadair · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Bruadar — from the Norse personal name Broddr. Woulfe lists Broderick only in brackets, as an English form adopted by families whose real name was Ó Bruadair, from the Norse personal name Broddr. He finds at least five separate families of it: chiefs of Iverk in south Kilkenny; a respectable Galway family; one at Carrickabraghy in Inishowen; one in Wexford; and one of the Corca Laoighdhe in Cork, kin to the O'Driscolls, to whom he thought the Brouders of Limerick belonged.
• Brogan · Ó Brógáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Brógán — probably from bróg, 'shoe'. A Connacht name also carried by an early Irish saint, Broccán. The root word bróg gave English its brogue — both the shoe and, later, the accent.
• Brophy · Ó Bróithe · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Brothe. One of the oldest true hereditary surnames in Europe, traced to a ninth-century Ossory ancestor — and still concentrated within a few miles of Ballybrophy in Laois, eleven centuries later.
• Brosnan · Ó Brosnacháin · Gaelic sept
  Of Brosna — the river and village in Kerry. Ó Brosnacháin, descendant of Brosnachán, a native of Brosna in Kerry: an old Kerry family, now also numerous in Limerick.
• Buckley · Ó Buachalla · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Buachaill, 'the herdsman'. Ó Buachalla, from Buachaill, the boy, used as a personal name. Woulfe records that in the 16th century the surname was peculiar to Cork, Tipperary and Offaly; by his time it was also common in Kerry, Kilkenny and Dublin, and rare in any other county.
• Bulger · Ó Bolguidhir · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Bolgodhar — perhaps a nickname. The O'Bolgers, Woulfe writes, were the great medical family of south Leinster. Bolger and Bulger are spellings of the same name, and he found it still common in Wexford in 1923.
• Burke · de Búrca · Norman dynasty
  From de Burgh — 'of the borough'. De Burgo, of the burgh. The family descends from William FitzAdelm de Burgo, who came with Henry II in 1171 and was granted much of Connacht in 1179; Walter de Burgo gained the earldom of Ulster by marriage, and the Burkes became the greatest Anglo-Norman family in Ireland.
• Butler · de Buitléir · Norman dynasty
  Le botiler — the (chief) butler of Ireland. Norman le Botiller, the butler. The name comes from the office of Chief Butler of Ireland, which Henry II gave to Theobald Walter, the first of the family in Ireland, along with the baronies of Upper and Lower Ormond and other great estates.
• Byrne · Ó Broin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Bran, 'raven'. Bran is a raven. The family descends from Bran, son of Maolmórdha, king of Leinster, whose death at Cologne the Four Masters record under 1052.

Also spelled with B

These are listed on the atlas under another spelling, but the B form is the one many families carry.