Irish surnames starting with F

The F names in brief

• Faherty · Ó Fathartaigh · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fathartach. Ó Fathartaigh was an old Galway family, Woulfe writes, formerly chiefs of Dealbhna Cuile Fabhair on the east side of Lough Corrib. The name was still common in Galway when he wrote, though sometimes disguised as Flaherty, and in Munster the softened initial turned it into Ó hAthartaigh.
• Fahy · Ó Fathaigh · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fathadh, 'foundation / green field'. Fathadh, older fothadh, means foundation. The O'Fahys were a Uí Maine family in Galway whose country, Poblewinterfahy, lay in the barony of Loughrea, and much of it stayed with them until the Cromwellian confiscations; there is also an old family of the name in Tipperary.
• Fallon · Ó Fallamhain · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fallamhan, 'leader'. From Fallamhan, a ruler. Woulfe records two families: a Leinster one, lords of Crioch na gCeadach around Castlejordan in Offaly, and the Connacht one, lords of Clann Uadach in the parishes of Camma and Dysart in the barony of Athlone.
• Farley · Ó Faircheallaigh · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Faircheallach. Coarbs of St Mogue and erenaghs of Drumlane in County Cavan until the monastery was suppressed, and still very numerous throughout that county. Woulfe notes a second family in east Limerick, long since gone.
• Fearon · Ó Fearáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fearán, a diminutive of fear, ‘a man’, or a pet form of Fearadach. Woulfe gives Ó Fearáin as the name of a branch of the Cinel Eoghain in Ulster, the northern Uí Néill dynasty. Fearon is one of a long run of English spellings he records for it, from O Feran and O Ferran in the older documents to Feron, Fearen, Fern, Farran and Farren.
• Feeney · Ó Fiannaidhe · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fiannaidhe, 'soldier'. Woulfe gives Feeney two homes. Ó Fiannaidhe was a family of the Uí Fiachrach seated at Finned in the parish of Easkey, Co.
• Fennelly · Ó Fionnghalaigh · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fionnghalach, 'fair-valorous'. An Ormond family, Woulfe writes, doubtless descended from Fionnghalach, son of Donnchuan, one of the leaders of Brian Boru's hosts at Clontarf.
• Ferguson · Mac Fearghusa · Ulster Scots / Gaelic
  Son of Fearghus, 'man-strength'. Mac Fearghusa, son of Fearghus, super-choice. Woulfe describes it as the name of a Scottish family, some of whom settled in the north of Ireland early in the 17th century.
• Finn · Ó Finn · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fionn, 'fair'. Woulfe finds three families of Ó Finn: a Breifne family, chiefs of Calraighe of Lough Gill, the parish of Calry near Sligo town; a Monaghan family, lords of Feara Rois around Carrickmacross; and a Galway family, erenaghs of Kilcolgan. He says all three were still well represented in their own districts, and the name had spread elsewhere besides.
• Finnegan · Ó Fionnagáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fionnagán, 'little fair one'. Fionnagán is a diminutive of fionn, fair. Woulfe gives two families, one of the Uí Fiachrach in Mayo and one in Bréifne, and by the end of the 16th century there were O'Finnegans in every province.
• Finnerty · Ó Fionnachta · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fionnachta, 'fair-snow'. The Ó Fionnachta were a branch of the Síol Muireadhaigh, the same stock as the O'Connors of Connacht, in two clans either side of the river Suck in Galway and Roscommon. The chief of Clann Chonnmhaigh had his castle at Dunamon and, as head of the senior line, the right to drink the first cup at every royal banquet.
• Finucane · Ó Fionnmhacáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fionnmhacán, ‘fair little son’. ‘A rare, but well-known, Munster surname’ is all Woulfe says of it. He adds that he could find no early English form of the name.
• Fitzgerald · Mac Gearailt · Norman dynasty
  Fitz Gerald — son of Gerald (of Windsor). Mac Gearailt, son of Gerald: the Irish form of FitzGerald. Woulfe ranks them with the Burkes and Butlers as the greatest Anglo-Norman families in Ireland.
• Fitzgibbon · Mac Giobúin · Norman dynasty
  Son of Gibbon — Norman French fitz, 'son of', and a pet form of Gilbert. The White Knight's line, one of the three hereditary knighthoods of Munster. Woulfe disputes the usual Geraldine descent, making the Limerick family the heirs of Gilbert de Clare instead, and records a quite separate Mac Giobúin — a branch of the Burkes west of Croagh Patrick in Mayo.
• Fitzpatrick · Mac Giolla Phádraig · Gaelic dynasty (Norman-styled)
  Son of the devotee of Patrick. Mac Giolla Phádraig, son of the servant of St Patrick: despite the Fitz, a Gaelic name. The principal family take their name from Giolla Phádraig, son of Donnchadh, lord of Ossory in the 10th century.
• Fitzsimons · Mac Síomóin · Norman
  Son of Simon. A Norman family of the Pale, not a Gaelic sept — the name began with individual sons of a Simon and hardened into a surname. The FitzSimons of Westmeath took the Irish surname Mac an Ridire, 'son of the knight'.
• Flanagan · Ó Flannagáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Flannagán, 'little red one'. Flannagán is a pet form of Flann, red, and Woulfe finds at least five distinct Flanagan families. In Fermanagh a branch of the Oirghialla were chiefs of Tuathratha, now Toorah, in the north-west of the county, and are still numerous in Ulster.
• Flannery · Ó Flannabhra · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Flannabhra, 'red-eyebrows'. Woulfe gives two families of Ó Flannabhra: one of the Uí Fidhgheinte in what is now Co. Limerick, long dispersed through Munster, and one of the Uí Fiachrach formerly seated near Killala, dispersed through Connacht.
• Fleming · Pléimeann · Norman-Flemish
  'the Fleming' — from Flanders. Of Flemish origin, the family came with the Normans; the Flemings were Barons of Slane in Meath for centuries.
• Flynn · Ó Floinn · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Flann, 'ruddy'. Flann means red, and Woulfe lists five Ó Floinn families. In Roscommon one family were chiefs of Síol Maolruain, around Kiltullagh, and another kept the church of St Dachonna at Eas Uí Fhloinn near Boyle.
• Fogarty · Ó Fógartaigh · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fógartach, 'the banished' or 'proclaimed'. Lords of Éile Uí Fhogartaigh in north Tipperary — a territory whose name survives to this day as the barony of Eliogarty, around Thurles.
• Foley · Ó Foghladha · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Foghlaidh — 'the plunderer'. Foghlaidh means plunderer. Woulfe describes Ó Foghladha as originally a Waterford surname, since spread throughout Munster and south Leinster.
• Forde · Mac Conshnámha / Mac Giolla na Naomh / Ó Fuaráin · Gaelic septs (several) & English settlers
  Three Irish names all mistranslated as 'ford': 'son of the swimming-hound' (Leitrim), 'son of the devotee of the saints' (Galway), 'descendant of Fuarthán, the cold one' (Cork). One English-looking name hiding several Irish septs. The Mac Conshnámha ruled Muintir Cionaith by Lough Allen in Leitrim; the Mac Giolla Naomh were a sept of south Connemara; the Ó Fuartháin were an old Munster family, numerous in Waterford, Cork, Kerry and Limerick.
• French · de Fréins · Norman
  'the Frenchman'. Norman de Freynes, of the ash trees, from living beside them. The family was an Anglo-Norman one in Wexford, and a branch settled in Galway in the 15th century and became one of the fourteen Tribes; Lord ffrench and Lord De Freyne descend from it, and the old ffrench spelling survived with them.
• Friel · Ó Firghil · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fearghal, 'super-valour'. A Cinéal Conaill family, Woulfe writes, descended from Eoghan, brother of St Columcille, and hereditary erenaghs of Kilmacrenan in Donegal. O'Freel had the privilege of inaugurating O'Donnell as chief of Tír Chonaill.
• Furlong · Furlong · Norman-English
  From the furrow-length of a ploughed field. English: at the furlong, a division of an open cornfield. The Furlongs were an old Anglo-Irish family in Wexford, with their chief seat at Horetown and the manors of Camross, Carrigmannan and Bridestown.

Also spelled with F

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