Fitzpatrick (surname)

The surname Fitzpatrick is the known translation of at least two different surnames: Mac Giolla Phádraig and Ó Maol Phádraig from the original Irish to English. Currently, it is ranked as the 60th most common surname in Ireland with an estimated 12,700 individuals bearing the name. While both Mac Giolla Phádraig and Ó Maol Phádraig have similar meanings, they are likely unrelated; yet both have arrived in the modern era as Fitzpatrick. Despite the prefix "Fitz-", Fitzpatrick is not a name of Hiberno-Norman descent.

Giolla Phádraig (means "the devotee of Patrick"). Gilla Patráic mac Donnchada was a tenth century king of Ossory, a kingdom in between Munster and Leinster in Ireland. According to William Carrigan, this kingdom was founded by Aengus Osrithe who flourished some time about the latter half of the 2nd century of the Christian era. Giolla Phádraig's reign commenced some eight centuries later in 976 AD and he reigned until he was slain in 996 AD. His sons were subsequently styled Mac Giolla Phádraig (meaning, son of Giolla Phádraig).

The Mac Giolla Phádraig dynasty were kings of Osraighe whose king was, from the 1540s, known as Baron Upper Ossory. At one time he was royal ruler over the Kingdom of Ossory (today comprising County Kilkenny and the western half of neighbouring Laois). Following the Norman invasion in the late twelfth century, their power was vastly diminished by the activity of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and later of the ascendancy of the Ormond Butlers and other Hiberno-Norman magnates. Although their patrimony was restricted to Upper Ossory, the Mac Giolla Phádraigs were by no means dispossessed of all their property. Brían Óg Mac Giolla Phádraig was the first Irish noble to accept the surrender and regrant terms of Henry VIII, and as a result in 1541, Brian became the first to assume the surname Fitzpatrick in place of Mac Gìolla Phádraig, for which he was created Baron Upper Ossory in the Irish House of Lords. In the 17th century, the Fitzpatricks lost considerable territory through their staunch support of James II. Nevertheless, the head of the sept received a peerage in 1714 as Baron Gowran which was elevated to Earl of Upper Ossory in 1751. A third title Baron Castletown was granted in 1869. Records from 1878 show that no less than 22,000 acres (89 km²) of the finest land in Ossory was owned by the family.

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