O'Gorman - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Gormáin
Meaning: “noble, blue”
Traditional stronghold: Clare, Monaghan
Pronunciation: oh-GOR-man; Irish Mac Gormáin: mock GOR-mawn
History of the O'Gorman name
Curiously, most O'Gormans are really MacGormans. The sept was Mac Gormáin, from gorm ('blue', by extension 'noble'), lords of Slievemargy on the Laois-Carlow border and part of the Uí Bairrche of Leinster. Dispossessed early in the Anglo-Norman invasion, they migrated in two directions: to Ibrickan in west Clare, where they became marshals to the O'Briens of Thomond and famous for hospitality, and to Monaghan. When Gaelic prefixes were resumed in the nineteenth century, the historically correct Mac was widely replaced by O, a fashion often credited to the vanity of the Chevalier Thomas O'Gorman, an eighteenth-century genealogist in French service. Clare, Tipperary and Monaghan remain the name's heartlands.
Variants: Gorman · MacGorman · McGorman
Famous bearers of the name
- Richard O'Gorman - Young Irelander of 1848 who escaped to America and became a New York judge.
- Colm O'Gorman - Abuse survivors' advocate, founder of One in Four and executive director of Amnesty International Ireland.
- Roderic O'Gorman - Green Party leader and Irish government minister.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: O'Brien · Kennedy · Quinn · Connolly · Duffy · McDonnell · McMahon · Boland