O’Flaherty
Ó Flaithbheartaigh · descendant of Flaithbheartach
O’Flaherty is Ó Flaithbheartaigh in Irish, said oh FLA-her-tee, and means descendant of Flaithbheartach.
Flaithbheartach means bright in lordship. Galway’s west gate carried the prayer: from the ferocious O’Flahertys, good Lord deliver us.
How it changes
- A man: Ó Flaithbheartaigh
- His daughter: Ní Fhlaithbheartaigh
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Fhlaithbheartaigh
- The family together: Uí Fhlaithbheartaigh
Where it comes from
Connemara and west Galway
Also spelt
O’Flaherty, Flaherty, Fluharty, Laverty
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.