Bermingham - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Mac Fheorais
Meaning: Norman - “son of Piers”
Traditional stronghold: Kildare, Galway
Pronunciation: BUR-ming-um; Irish Mac Fheorais: mock OR-ish
History of the Bermingham name
The de Berminghams took their name from the English town of Birmingham and came to Ireland with the first Anglo-Norman wave. They won two great lordships: Athenry in Connacht, which they founded and held as barons, and Tethmoy on the Kildare-Offaly border. So gaelicised did the Connacht branch become that they adopted a patronymic, Mac Fheorais, 'son of Piers', after Piers de Bermingham - a name later anglicised as Corish. John de Bermingham destroyed Edward Bruce's army at Faughart in 1318 and was made Earl of Louth, only to be murdered with many kinsmen in the Braganstown massacre of 1329. The name persists chiefly in Galway, Kildare and Dublin, spelled both Bermingham and Birmingham.
Variants: Birmingham · Corish · MacFeorais
Famous bearers of the name
- John de Bermingham, Earl of Louth - Commander who defeated and killed Edward Bruce at Faughart in 1318.
- Willie Bermingham - Dublin fireman who founded the charity ALONE for older people living in isolation.
- George A. Birmingham - Pen name of Canon James Owen Hannay, prolific Mayo-based novelist.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Kelly · Lynch · Connolly · Burke · Clarke · Hughes · Keane · Kenny