Kelly
Ó Ceallaigh · descendant of Ceallach
Kelly is Ó Ceallaigh in Irish, said oh KAL-ee, and means descendant of Ceallach.
Ceallach is read as bright-headed or as strife, and the scholars have never settled it. Second only to Murphy, and spread so widely that at least seven separate families carry it.
How it changes
- A man: Ó Ceallaigh
- His daughter: Ní Cheallaigh
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Cheallaigh
- The family together: Uí Cheallaigh
Where it comes from
Uí Mhaine, east Galway and south Roscommon
Also spelt
Kelly, O’Kelly, Kelley
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.