Irish surnames starting with P

The P names in brief

• Patterson · Mac Páidín · Scottish & English / Gaelic substitute
  Son of Páidín, a pet form of Patrick. Patterson, ‘son of Patrick’, is a surname from Scotland, Ireland and the north of England. Woulfe records two Irish families who were given this English form.
• Philbin · Mac Philbín · Norman-Gaelic
  Son of Philpin, a little Philip. A Mayo family whose chief lived at the Castle of Doon near Westport. O'Donovan made them a branch of the Burkes; Woulfe thought them more probably a branch of the Barretts.
• Plunkett · Pluincéid · Norman
  Norman Blanchet, from French blanc, 'white, pale'. A Norman family who settled in north County Dublin and became one of the leading families of the Pale, as Lords of Killeen, Earls of Fingall, Barons of Dunsany and Earls of Louth. Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, was executed at Tyburn in 1681 and canonised in 1975; Joseph Mary Plunkett signed the 1916 Proclamation and married Grace Gifford in his cell hours before his execution.
• Power · de Paor · Norman
  Le poer — 'the poor man' (a crusader's vow). Norman: le Poer, the poor, from Old French povre. Woulfe, following Bardsley, thinks it was probably poverty under a religious vow rather than ordinary want, which was too common to mark anyone out.
• Prendergast · de Priondargás · Norman-Flemish
  From Brontegeest in Flanders. Norman: of Prendergast, a parish in Pembrokeshire. Maurice de Prendergast was one of the knights who came with Strongbow, and he and his descendants received large grants in the south and west; the main branches were in Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick, Mayo and Galway.
• Purcell · Puirséil · Norman
  Pourcel — 'piglet' (a herdsman's name). Norman, and a nickname: porcel, the little pig, from Old French porc. The name is of record in Ireland from about the middle of the 13th century and was already common in Munster by the start of the 14th.

Also spelled with P

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