Fitzgibbon — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Mac Giobúin
Meaning: 'son of Gibbon, a pet form of Gilbert'
Traditional stronghold: Cork, Limerick
Pronunciation: fitz-GIB-un; Irish Mac Giobúin: mok gih-BOON
History of the Fitzgibbon name
The FitzGibbons are a branch of the great Geraldine dynasty, descending from Gibbon, a pet form of Gilbert, and their chief line held one of Ireland's three hereditary Geraldine knighthoods: the White Knight, An Ridire Fionn, alongside the Knight of Glin and the Knight of Kerry. Their country lay on the Limerick-Cork border around Mitchelstown and Kilmallock. Edmund FitzGibbon, the last White Knight, notoriously betrayed the Sugán Earl of Desmond to the Crown in 1601. A very different bearer, John FitzGibbon, Earl of Clare, was the most hated man in late-18th-century Ireland as the Lord Chancellor who drove through the Act of Union. The name remains a Limerick and Cork one, with a Gaelic form, Mac Giobúin, used throughout.
Variants: FitzGibbon · Gibbons · MacGibbon
Famous bearers of the name
- Edmund FitzGibbon — The last White Knight, who delivered the rebel Sugán Earl of Desmond to the Crown in 1601.
- John FitzGibbon — Earl of Clare and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, chief architect of the Act of Union.
- Marjorie Fitzgibbon — American-born Irish sculptor whose James Joyce statue stands on Dublin's North Earl Street.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · O'Brien · Ryan · O'Sullivan · McCarthy · Daly · Collins · Fitzgerald