Message: "Gaelic" - Behind the Name

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Gaelic

by genis (guest)

9/11/2007, 10:48 PM

Sorry, "Keady" sounds so typically Irish, I can't imagine why you'd think it Latin, lol. A Wikipedia article (with a definition reference):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keady

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- Jim Young (guest) +2

9/14/2007, 5:44 AM

I agree, certainly not Latin, and, in this context, not a surname, it seems. However there is an Irish surname Keady, but it's not from the town of that name. It's from the Irish Mac Céidaigh, "son of (a man named) Céadach". Céadach has been englished as Kedagh. So your ancestor may have been called Keady as a version of Kedagh, because of a connection with a Keady family, or because of a family connection with the town of Keady.

- genis (guest) +1

9/14/2007, 8:51 AM

meaning of Céadach

JY---

What do you think of this explanation of Céadach?

'* Brigh: This Irish word seems to he the root of the surname Bright. The name Ceadach ("cead:" Irish, first; Chald. "chad") implies "the foremost man;" and Ceadach na Brighe means "the man who was foremost for his strength."'

http://www.libraryireland.com/Pedigrees1/TraceyHeber.php

- Jim Young (guest)

9/14/2007, 11:44 AM

"Kedagh,Céadach m[ale] a well-used name in the later Middle Ages. Its meaning is unclear, but it may come from a word for 'first', or a word meaning 'hundred'". Julia Cresswell, "Irish First Names".
Edward MacLysaght, discussing the surname Keady ("Surnames of Ireland") writes "Céadach was a personal name (from céad, hundred) popular with the O'Mores of Leix with whom the MacKeadys were associated."
Interesting to see an early (pre-surnames)instance of the name.

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