Stack - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Stac
Meaning: Norman-English origin
Traditional stronghold: Kerry
Pronunciation: STAK; Irish de Stac: deh STOCK
History of the Stack name
The Stacks are an Anglo-Norman family who settled in north Kerry in the thirteenth century and, like many such families, became completely Hibernicised, adopting the Irish form de Stac and intermarrying with the Gaelic septs around them. Their territory lay in the uplands between Tralee and Abbeyfeale still known as the Stack's Mountains, and for centuries they were reckoned among the gentry of Kerry, frequently allied with the Fitzmaurices and the Desmond Geraldines. The name has never strayed far: Kerry and adjacent west Limerick remain its stronghold, and it is woven into local life, most visibly in Austin Stack Park, the county GAA ground in Tralee.
Variants: Stacke · de Stac · Stacks
Famous bearers of the name
- Austin Stack - Kerry republican leader and Sinn Féin minister after whom Tralee's GAA stadium is named.
- Tommy Stack - Tipperary-born jockey who rode Red Rum to his third Grand National in 1977.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: O'Sullivan · O'Connor · McCarthy · O'Connell · Fitzgerald · O'Shea · Griffin · Kelleher