Lawless — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Laighléis
Meaning: 'outlaw (Middle English laghles)'
Traditional stronghold: Dublin, Galway
Pronunciation: LAW-less; Irish Laighléis: ly-LAYSH
History of the Lawless name
Lawless began as the Middle English nickname laghles, meaning outlaw, and came to Ireland soon after the Anglo-Norman invasion. The family became prominent burgesses of Dublin and Galway; in Galway they were counted among the leading merchant families outside the fourteen Tribes, and Lawlesses served repeatedly as officials of both cities in the medieval period. The Dublin line rose in the eighteenth century to the peerage as Barons Cloncurry, and Valentine Lawless, the second baron, was imprisoned on suspicion of United Irish sympathies. The novelist and poet Emily Lawless, author of Grania and With the Wild Geese, belonged to the same family.
Variants: Lawles · Laighléis
Famous bearers of the name
- Emily Lawless — Kildare-born novelist and poet, author of Grania and the poem collection With the Wild Geese.
- Valentine Lawless, Lord Cloncurry — Landowner imprisoned in the Tower of London for United Irish sympathies.
- Matthew James Lawless — Dublin-born Victorian painter and illustrator, best known for The Sick Call.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Kelly · Byrne · Lynch · Connolly · Burke · Clarke · Hughes · Casey