Lynch
Ó Loingsigh · descendant of Loingseach
Lynch is Ó Loingsigh in Irish, said oh LING-shee, and means descendant of Loingseach.
Loingseach means mariner, from long, a ship. The Galway Lynches are a different family entirely, Norman de Lench, and one of the fourteen tribes of the city.
How it changes
- A man: Ó Loingsigh
- His daughter: Ní Loingsigh
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Loingsigh
- The family together: Uí Loingsigh
Where it comes from
Cork and Clare
Also spelt
Lynch, O’Lynch, Linch
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.