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ArchivesRe: the surname BRAGG
in reply to a message by Anon.
Thanks! ...just wondering ...some of these things are "educated guesses" ...anyway even by the experts.
My own last name, Foley, arose in two different areas of Ireland from unrelated derivatives. I had assumed mine was the more popular in the south since most of my family is from there. It comes from 'fohglai', meaning a robber or plunderer while the other is in the west from a mistranslation of the word 'serraich' which is a small horse ...or a foal. It wasn't until I learned that the birthplace of my great grandfather was in Roscommon that I finally concluded mine must be descended from 'serraich' ...in all probability.
My own last name, Foley, arose in two different areas of Ireland from unrelated derivatives. I had assumed mine was the more popular in the south since most of my family is from there. It comes from 'fohglai', meaning a robber or plunderer while the other is in the west from a mistranslation of the word 'serraich' which is a small horse ...or a foal. It wasn't until I learned that the birthplace of my great grandfather was in Roscommon that I finally concluded mine must be descended from 'serraich' ...in all probability.
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That strikes me as very unusual, a surname with the meaning 'robber'. Got any more like that?
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I think the holders of that name would prefer 'plunderer' ...I had always guessed that since it's origins were in Waterford (a county in SE Ireland) the scene of many Viking incursion that it probably had to do with the Viking raiders themselves or perhaps the Irish who raided the Viking settlements. The Vikings were the first to actually build cities in Ireland. The Irish population was totally agrarian at the time.
If you were one of them, you’d call yourself a ‘plunderer’ and if you were the victim of the plundering, you’d call them ‘robbers’...I don't really have any others that would seem to have such obvious mixed connotations, though I suspect they exist.
If you were one of them, you’d call yourself a ‘plunderer’ and if you were the victim of the plundering, you’d call them ‘robbers’...I don't really have any others that would seem to have such obvious mixed connotations, though I suspect they exist.
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