In this article, we look at Irish Surnames – their origins and evolution. See if you can find the Irish surnames in your family tree in one of the sections below.

Irish magazine cover for A Letter From Ireland

Letter from Ireland Magazine January/February 2020

Welcome to the Letter from Ireland Magazine for March/April, 2019. In this issue you will find features on: Saint Patrick and following in his footsteps, County Mayo – a Homelands feature, using Irish Records for your Irish ancestry research and much more.

Irish Vikings – A Walk on the Viking Meadow

We’re just back from a trip to County Wicklow – where we were covering an Irish Homelands feature for The Green Room and visiting such wonderful locations as Glendalough. Wandering around Wicklow town, one particular sign in a shop window caught our eye: “Paid Work! Film extras wanted for the 5th season of Vikings. We…

Do you have an Irish Viking Surname?

Did you know that Wicklow comes from the Norse “Vykyngelo” – meaning a “Viking meadow”? Let’s stay on that subject of Vikings for the rest of today’s letter. One of the most frequent enquiries I receive goes something like: “I just got my DNA tested and it turned up as 12% Scandinavian. I wonder if…

Did your Family Live in an Irish Castle?

When we look at Irish surnames today, it’s easy to get confused when we see names that appear to have several different spellings, some look very English or Scottish – how could they be Irish you ask – while other names appear to randomly have an “O” or “Mac” in front of them. Before We…