Farrell is the anglicized form of the Gaelic Ó Fearghail, "descendant of Fearghal," the family that ruled the territory of Annaly in what is now County Longford. The town of Longford is named for their seat, Longphort Uí Fhearghail, the O'Farrell fortress, and the name is still more concentrated in Longford and the neighboring midland counties than anywhere else. Every Farrell and O'Farrell design we make is gathered in our Farrell and O'Farrell Irish family gifts collection.
Quick answer: Farrell and O'Farrell both come from Ó Fearghail, the lords of Annaly (Anghaile) in County Longford. Their fortress gave Longford town its name, their line split into the O'Farrell Boy and O'Farrell Bane branches, and they held Annaly as an independent lordship until 1565.
What Does the Farrell Name Mean?
The Irish form is Ó Fearghail, "descendant of Fearghal." Fearghal was an ancient and once very common personal name, used among the MacDonnells, MacDonoughs, Mageoghegans, O'Neills and O'Rourkes as well as the O'Farrells. Rev. Patrick Woulfe, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923), glosses it as super-valor; the more familiar reading splits it into fear, man, and gal, valor, giving "man of valor." Both readings point to the same idea of courage in battle. The personal name also survives on its own as Fergal, and Woulfe notes it was held to be the Irish name of the eighth-century scholar-bishop St. Virgilius of Salzburg.
Woulfe lists the anglicized forms O'Ferrall, O'Farrell, Farrell, Ferrall, Farrahill, Frahill and Fraul. Farrell is by far the most common today, and the "O" has been making a slow return: only 6% of the name were recorded as O'Farrell in 1890, against 14% in 1996, according to John Grenham's surname history. In 1890 the name ranked 35th among Irish surnames; by 1996 it stood 31st.
Farrelly is a separate name. Most Farrellys descend from Ó Faircheallaigh, an ecclesiastical family of Drumlane in County Cavan, and Woulfe gives that name a different root, Faircheallach (super-war).
Who Were the O'Farrells and What Was Annaly?
The O'Farrells belonged to the Conmaicne, a people of the upper Shannon, and their territory was Annaly, Anghaile, which corresponds broadly to modern County Longford. Grenham names the founder of the surname as Fearghal, king of the Conmaicne, who was killed at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Over the following centuries his descendants became the ruling family of Annaly, and Woulfe describes them as "for many centuries the ruling race" of the territory.
The head of the family lived at Longford itself. The Placenames Database of Ireland records the Irish name of the town as An Longfort, with historical forms such as Longphort Uí Fhearghail, "the camp or fortress of O'Farrell," and notes that in 1400 Domhnall O'Farrell founded a monastery on land north of the Camlin River (logainm.ie). The county later took its name from the town, so Longford carries the O'Farrell name on every map of Ireland.
In later times the family divided into two great branches. Their heads were known as O'Farrell Boy (buí), the yellow O'Farrell, and O'Farrell Bane (bán), the fair O'Farrell. As the O'Farrells grew stronger they also absorbed older neighbors: Woulfe records that the Ó Cuinn (Quinn) chiefs of Muintir Giolgáin in Longford, a family of the same Conmaicne stock, were supplanted by the O'Farrells toward the end of the fourteenth century.
What Does the O'Farrell Name Mean in the Context of Irish History?
The O'Farrells were not merely local lords but participants in the wider political life of medieval Ireland. Their alliances and conflicts with neighboring dynasties, among them the O'Reillys of Breifne and the O'Connors of Connacht, are recorded in the annals, and as lords of Annaly they held a defined place in the hierarchy of Gaelic kingship, in which regional lords owed varying degrees of loyalty to provincial overkings.
Annaly also lay on a frontier with the Anglo-Norman colony. The Norman knight Richard de Tuite raised the great motte at Granard in north Longford around 1199 (Heritage Ireland), but the O'Farrells kept their hold on Annaly and remained independent until 1565, when the lord deputy Sir Henry Sidney reduced the territory to shire ground.
How Did the O'Farrells Fare Through the Tudor Conquest and Its Aftermath?
Shiring brought English law and administration into Annaly, and the next blow was the plantation of Longford under James I, which took a large share of O'Farrell land. Woulfe notes that, though they suffered severely from the plantation, the O'Farrells still took a prominent part in all the political and military movements of the seventeenth century. The Cromwellian land settlements of the 1650s brought further confiscations across Longford and the surrounding counties, and many O'Farrell landholders lost what remained of their estates.
The wars of 1689 to 1691 sent many of the family abroad. Grenham records that Ceadagh O'Farrell of Annaly was killed at the Boyne in 1691 and that three of his sons served in the Irish Brigade in France, settling in Picardy. Woulfe adds that many O'Farrells became distinguished officers in the Irish brigades in the service of France. At home, the Farrell name stayed rooted in Longford as the family's descendants farmed the same country their ancestors had ruled.
Woulfe also records other, unrelated families of the name seated in Wicklow and Tyrone, and Farrells from those counties belong to those separate lines. For most Farrells, however, the Longford story is the right one.
Which Other Midland Families Shared the O'Farrell Story?
The O'Farrell story connects naturally with other surnames of the same landscape. The Brady family of County Cavan, chiefs of Cúil Bhríghde around Stradone, belonged to the O'Reilly kingdom of East Breifne, the Cavan country that bordered the O'Farrell lordship of Annaly. The Moore family, the O'Mores of Laois, were another midland Gaelic lordship that met the same Tudor and Cromwellian upheavals in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Where Is the Farrell Name Found Today?
Farrell is now found throughout Ireland, but its largest concentration remains in Longford and the surrounding counties. The family is still written into the landscape there: Grenham lists the townlands of Lisfarrell in Templemichael parish, Moatfarrell in Clonbroney and Formoyle Farrell in Rathcline.
Emigration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and above all during and after the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852, carried the name to Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and Argentina. Farrell families from the midlands settled in the Irish communities of New York, Boston and Philadelphia, in the goldfields and farming districts of Australia, and on the sheep runs of the Argentine pampas.
How Can You Research Farrell Family History?
Because the name is so common in Longford, a townland or parish is the key to separating one Farrell family from another. These sources are the best places to start:
- Civil records: IrishGenealogy.ie has free civil birth, marriage and death records, with births and deaths recorded from 1864.
- Census: the National Archives of Ireland 1901 and 1911 census lists every household by townland.
- Land records: Griffith's Valuation (Longford was surveyed in the 1850s) and the earlier Tithe Applotment Books show where Farrell tenants held land.
- Parish registers: the National Library of Ireland Catholic parish registers cover the Longford parishes, most from the early nineteenth century.
- Place names: logainm.ie gives the Irish form and history of every townland, useful for tracing names such as Lisfarrell and Moatfarrell.
- County history: J. P. Farrell's History of the County Longford (1891) remains a rich source on the O'Farrell lordship and the families of Annaly.
Notable Farrells and O'Farrells
Richard O'Ferrall (died 1663), born Barnabas O'Ferrall in Annaly, became a Capuchin friar and served the papal nuncio Rinuccini during the Confederate wars; he gathered the material for the Commentarius Rinuccinianus (Dictionary of Irish Biography).
J. P. Farrell (1865–1921), born in Longford, founded the Longford Leader in 1897, wrote the history of his county and sat as MP for North Longford from 1900 to 1918, leading the county's home rule politics (Dictionary of Irish Biography).
Elizabeth O'Farrell (1884–1957), a Dublin midwife and member of Cumann na mBan, was chosen by Patrick Pearse on 29 April 1916 to carry the request for surrender terms to Brigadier-General Lowe, and then took the surrender order to the rebel garrisons (Dictionary of Irish Biography).
Edelmiro Julián Farrell, an Argentine general of Irish descent, served as President of Argentina from 1944 to 1946 (Britannica). Colin Farrell, born in Castleknock, Dublin, in 1976, carried the name to the front rank of international film; In Bruges won him the first of his Golden Globes in 2009, and The Lobster followed in 2015 (Britannica).
Frequently Asked Questions About the Farrell Name
What nationality is the Farrell surname?
Farrell is Irish. It is the anglicized form of Ó Fearghail, the ruling family of Annaly in the Irish midlands.
What does the Farrell name mean?
It means "descendant of Fearghal." Woulfe glosses Fearghal as super-valor, and it is also read as fear (man) and gal (valor): the man of valor.
Where in Ireland are Farrells from?
County Longford above all, the old lordship of Annaly, with strong numbers in the surrounding midland counties.
Is Longford really named after the O'Farrells?
Yes. The town grew around Longphort Uí Fhearghail, the O'Farrell fortress, and the county took its name from the town.
Is it Farrell or O'Farrell?
Both are the same name. Farrell is the usual modern form, while O'Farrell keeps the Gaelic prefix and has grown more popular over the last century.
Are Farrell and Farrelly the same family?
Usually not. Most Farrellys come from Ó Faircheallaigh, a Cavan family of Drumlane, while Farrell comes from the Ó Fearghail of Longford.
Ready to mark your own connection to the name? Browse the Farrell and O'Farrell Irish family heritage gifts, made for reunions, genealogy discoveries and family occasions.