Fitzpatrick
Mac Giolla Phádraig · son of the servant of Patrick
Fitzpatrick is Mac Giolla Phádraig in Irish, said mak gil-a FAW-drig, and means son of the servant of Patrick.
The only Fitz name in Ireland that is Gaelic rather than Norman: Giolla Phádraig, the devotee of Patrick, was turned into Fitzpatrick to pass as Norman in the sixteenth century, and it stuck.
How it changes
- A man: Mac Giolla Phádraig
- His daughter: Nic Giolla Phádraig
- A woman who married into it: Bean Mhic Giolla Phádraig
- The family together: Mhic Giolla Phádraig
Where it comes from
Ossory, the Laois and Kilkenny border
Also spelt
Fitzpatrick, Kilpatrick, Patrick
A name, not a pedigree
This is where the name came from, which is not the same as where you came from. Names were translated, anglicised, taken on by tenants and neighbours, and carried in by settlers who were no relation to the family that started them. To follow your own line, the 1901 and 1911 censuses are free and searchable, and give the county each person was born in.