Blake - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: de Bláca
Meaning: Norman - “black, pale”
Traditional stronghold: Galway
A Tribe of Galway.
Pronunciation: blayk; Irish de Bláca: deh BLAW-ka
History of the Blake name
The Irish Blakes descend from Richard Caddell, a Norman settler nicknamed Niger or le Blaca, the black, who served as sheriff of Connacht around 1306; the nickname displaced the original surname entirely. The family became one of the fourteen Tribes of Galway, trading from the city and accumulating estates and castles across the county, including Menlo and Ardfry, and Blake remains one of the most characteristic Galway surnames. Branches also flourished in Mayo. Unrelated English Blakes settled elsewhere in Ireland, but in Connacht the name almost always signals descent from the tribe.
Variants: Caddell · de Bláca
Famous bearers of the name
- Sir Henry Arthur Blake - Limerick-born colonial governor of Hong Kong and Ceylon; the Hong Kong flower Bauhinia blakeana is named for him.
- Edward Blake - Premier of Ontario of Galway Blake stock who later sat as an Irish nationalist MP for South Longford.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Kelly · Lynch · Connolly · Burke · Clarke · Hughes · Keane · Kenny