Irish surnames starting with R

The R names in brief

• Redmond · Réamonn · Norman
  From Raymond (le Gros). Descended from Raymond le Gros, Strongbow's best soldier. Seven centuries later John Redmond of Wexford led Ireland's parliamentary party to the brink of Home Rule.
• Regan · Ó Riagáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Riagán, 'little king' (or 'impulsive'). One of the ancient Four Tribes of Tara, scattered to Laois and Cork by the invasions. A Ballyporeen emigrant's great-grandson, Ronald Reagan, brought the name back to Ireland as US President in 1984.
• Reynolds · Mac Raghnaill · Norse-Gaelic
  Son of Raghnall — the Irish form of the Norse name Rögnvaldr. Chiefs of Muintir Eolais in south Leitrim, whose Norse-derived name was flattened into the very English-sounding Reynolds. A Viking personal name, an Irish sept, an English spelling — the whole island in one surname.
• Rice · Rís · Norman-Welsh
  From Welsh Rhys. Welsh blood in Irish ports: Dingle wine merchants who smuggled priests and claret in the penal days, and Edmund Ignatius Rice of Callan, who founded the Christian Brothers in 1802.
• Riordan · Ó Ríoghbhardáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Ríoghbhardán, 'royal little bard'. The 'royal bard' sept of Muskerry, poetry in the very etymology, later giving Ireland Seán Ó Ríordáin, the greatest Irish-language poet of the 20th century.
• Roche · de Róiste · Norman
  De la roche — 'of the rock'. Norman settlers whose Cork seat, Castletownroche, anchored the viscounts Fermoy. Through the Roches of that line runs the ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales.
• Rooney · Ó Ruanaidh · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Ruanadh, 'the champion'. Poets of Iveagh in Down whose bardic line praised the Magennises; the emigrant name built a Pittsburgh football dynasty and, via Wayne Rooney's forebears, filled English terraces too.
• Ryan · Ó Maoilriain · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Maoilriaghain. The Ryans of Owney held the Tipperary-Limerick borderlands so thoroughly that the name is still among Ireland's ten most common — and utterly dominant at home.

Also spelled with R

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