P
Patterson
Patterson is now found throughout Ireland, though it is common only in Ulster, being
particularly frequent in Co Down. Originally it is a Lowland Scottish name, meaning,
simply, 'Patrick's son', and was also used as an anglicisation of the Highland Gaelic
surname, Mac (Gille) Phadraig, meaning 'son of the follower of Patrick'. In addition,
there is a surname, Mac Phaidin, from Paidin, a diminutive of Patrick, which arose
separately in both Ulster and Scotland, and which has been anglicised as Patterson, as
well as the more usual (Mc)Fadden and (Mc)Padden.
The founder of the Belfast Natural History Society was Robert Patterson (1802-1872).
Power
Power is originally a Norman name, which may derive from the Old French povre, meaning
'poor', or from pohier, meaning a native of the town of Pois in Picardy in France, so
called from the Old French pois, meaning 'fish', a name given it because of its rivers.
The surname is also found in Ireland as 'Le Poer', and in the Irish version 'de Paor'. The
first Norman settlers of the name were in Co Waterford, where members of the family
retained large estates up to the nineteenth century, and the surname is still most
numerous by far in that county, although it has also spread into the adjoining counties of
Kilkenny, Cork, Tipperary and Wexford. The family which founded Power's distillery, famous
for its whiskey, were from Wexford, with their seat at Edermine, near Enniscorthy.
Quigley
Quigley is the principal English version of the Irish O Coigligh, from coigleach, meaning
'unkempt'. The main origin of the family was in Co Mayo, where they were part of the
powerful Ui Fiachrach tribal grouping. From there they were dispersed at an early date,
principally to the adjacent territories now part of counties Sligo, Donegal and Derry,
where the name is principally found today. There appears also to have been a separate O
Coigligh family which arose in Co Wexford, where the name has been anglicised for the most
part as 'Cogley', although Quigley is also frequent.
ROGERS
Rodgers is one of the most common surnames in Britain and Ireland. Its English origin is
simple: it means ‘son of Roger’, a very common personal name made up of two
Germanic elements: hrod, ‘renown’ and geri, ‘spear’. It is also common
in Scotland, where it is frequently spelt Rodgers. Many, if not most of those bearing the
name in Ireland are of English and Scottish descent. However, the Gaelic Irish surname
MacRuaidhri, from the personal name Ruaidhri, meaning ‘red king’, was also
anglicised as Rogers. Two Mac Ruaidhri families are notable in early times, one based in
Co Tyrone, a branch of whom migrated north to Co Derry, the other in Co Fermanagh,
possibly an offshoot of the Maguires. In these areas the surname was also anglicised
MacRory and MacCrory. In addition, because Ruaidhri was such a common personal name, many
individuals in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were identified by the fathers
names. A son of Ruaidhri O Briain might, for example, be known as Mac Ruaidhri O Briain.
In a significant number of cases the Mac Ruaidhri was then passed on to the next
generation, instead of O Briain, becoming an hereditary surname in its own right, and was
then anglicised ‘Rogers’.
ROONEY
Rooney is the anglicised version of O Ruanaidh, from Ruanadh, a personal name meaning
‘champion’. The principal family of the name originated in Co Down, where their
territory was centred on the parish of Ballyroney, which includes their name. They have
produced many poets, the most recent of whom is Padraig Rooney, winner of the Kavanagh
Prize for Poetry in 1986. Two other families, both from Co Fermanagh, have also anglicised
their surnames as Rooney, the O Maolruanaidh (‘Mulrooney’) and the Mac
Maolruanaidh (‘Macarooney’), both prominent in the early history of the county.
RYAN
Ryan is today one of the commonest surnames in Ireland. Unlike many other common surnames,
however, it has one major origin, in the family of O Maoilriaghain, meaning
‘descendant of a devotee of St Riaghan’. The anglicisation ‘Mulryan’
began to fade as early as the seventeenth century, and is today virtually unknown, apart
from a few pockets in counties Galway and Leitrim, possibly derived from a different
family. The surname first appears in the fourteenth century in the barony of Owney, on the
borders of counties Limerick and Tipperary, where the O Maoilriaghain displaced the
O’Heffernans. Even today the surname is highly concentrated in this area. In Carlow
and adjoining areas Ryan may also derive from O Riaghain, sometimes confused with Regan.
Patrick J Ryan (1883-1964) emigrated to the U.S., won a gold medal for hammer throwing for
that country in the 1920 Olympics, and then returned to farming in Pallasgreen in Limerick