Redmond - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Réamonn
Meaning: Norman, from Raymond - “wise protector”
Traditional stronghold: Wexford
Pronunciation: RED-mund; Irish Réamonn: RAY-mun
History of the Redmond name
Redmond is a Norman name from the personal name Raymond, and in Ireland it belongs above all to Co. Wexford, where the family settled on the Hook peninsula soon after the invasion of 1169; tradition connects them with Raymond le Gros, one of Strongbow's chief captains. The Redmonds of the Hall held lands there for centuries, and the name multiplied through south Wexford among both gentry and tenantry. A separate Gaelic family in Wexford, Mac Réamoinn, a branch of the Kavanaghs? took the same anglicised form. The name is inseparable from constitutional nationalism: John Redmond of Ballytrent led the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 and brought Home Rule to the statute book in 1914, while his brother Willie died a soldier at Messines.
Variants: Réamonn · Redmund · MacRedmond
Famous bearers of the name
- John Redmond - Wexford leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party who secured the Home Rule Act of 1914.
- Willie Redmond - Nationalist MP who died at the Battle of Messines in 1917, aged 56, having enlisted to further Home Rule.
- Liam Redmond - Clare-born character actor of the Abbey Theatre, Broadway and Hollywood.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · Doyle · Kavanagh · Cullen · Roche · Keating · Larkin · Kinsella