Ferriter — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Feiritéar
Meaning: 'Norman name, possibly from le fureter (the ferreter)'
Traditional stronghold: Kerry
Pronunciation: FER-ih-ter; Irish Feiritéar: FER-ih-tchayr
History of the Ferriter name
The Ferriters are a small Norman family with one of the most sharply defined homelands of any Irish surname: the far west of the Dingle peninsula in Co. Kerry, where they settled in the 13th century as tenants of the Earls of Desmond and gave their name to Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, Ballyferriter. Wholly gaelicised, they produced the name's great figure, Piaras Feiritéar, poet, harper and chieftain, who led local forces in the rising of 1641 and was the last Kerry commander to hold out against the Cromwellians; he was hanged at Killarney in 1653 and lives on in Kerry folklore and in his surviving poems. The name is still found almost exclusively in Kerry and among its diaspora.
Variants: Feiritéar · Ferriler · Ferreter
Famous bearers of the name
- Piaras Feiritéar — Poet-chieftain of the Dingle peninsula, hanged by Cromwellian forces at Killarney in 1653.
- Diarmaid Ferriter — UCD professor of modern Irish history, prolific author and broadcaster.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: O'Sullivan · O'Connor · McCarthy · O'Connell · Fitzgerald · O'Shea · Griffin · Kelleher