Lyons
An Irish surname of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, and Mayo. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 84,516 people, the 369th most common surname in the country.
Lyons is the anglicised form of four distinct Irish names. Some you can hear in the English name; others look and sound nothing like it, and were simply swapped for it.
de Líon. This family stood in Co. Meath.
Ó Laighin, descendant of Laighean (lance, spear). This family stood in the barony of Kilconnell in Co. Galway, Co. Kerry, and Co. Kildare.
Ó Laighnigh, descendant of Laighneach (Leinsterman)
Ó Liatháin, descendant of Liathán (diminutive of liath , grey). This family stood in Co. Cork, Co. Donegal, and Co. Sligo.
Where the name comes from
Ó Laighin is descendant of Laighean, a lance or spear, and it names an ancient family in Co. Galway who kept considerable property in the barony (an old land division, several parishes across) of Kilconnell down to the end of the 17th century, a Kildare family formerly seated at Cill, now Kill, near Naas, and an old Kerry family. It is now very common all over Ireland, and it comes down as Lyne, Lane, Leane, Leen and Lyons alike.
Ó Liatháin, descendant of Liathán, a little grey one, is two families: one in Cork and one in Sligo. The Uí Liatháin of Cork were one of the families into which the great old Cork clan of that name divided after surnames came in, and the surname is still common there, though very often anglicised Lyons. The Sligo family belonged to the Ui Fiachrach race and was seated in the parish of Dromard; the name has now disappeared from Co. Sligo, having removed to Donegal, where it survives as Lyons.
de Líon is the Norman de Lyons: of Lyons, the city in France, or possibly of Lyons, a parish in Durham. That family came about the time of the invasion and settled in Meath and other parts of the Pale. And Ó Laighnigh, descendant of Laighneach, a Leinsterman, is a very rare surname that lands here too.
The Lyons counties, photographed
Cork
Cork is the largest county in Ireland. Three peninsulas run west into the Atlantic: Beara, Sheep's Head and Mizen, with the population thinning the further out you go. My gallery is in Glengarriff at the head of Bantry Bay, so it's the ground I photograph most.
Dublin
Dublin is a county as well as a city. The bay has Howth at the north end and Killiney Hill at the south, the Muglins are a pair of rocks off Dalkey, and the Dublin Mountains start about half an hour from the city centre.
The Muglins by Moonlight II
Co. Dublin
The White Rock, Killiney Bay, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin
Heron, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin
Galway
Connemara takes up the west of the county: the Twelve Bens, blanket bog, and fields walled off into very small squares. The Aran Islands sit at the mouth of Galway Bay. The Gaeltacht starts a few miles west of Galway city.
Poll an tSéideáin, Inis Meáin, Aran Islands, Co. Galway
Co. Galway
The Plassey, Inis Oirr, Aran Islands, Co. Galway
Co. Galway
Kerry
Carrauntoohil in the MacGillycuddy's Reeks is the highest mountain in Ireland at 1,038 metres. The Dingle and Iveragh peninsulas run west from it, with the Skelligs eight miles off the Iveragh coast. I ran a gallery in Killarney for years.
Evening, Coumeenoole Beach, Dingle, Kerry
Co. Kerry
Evening II, Coumeenoole Beach, Dingle, Kerry
Co. Kerry
Mayo
Achill is the largest island off the Irish coast and is joined to the mainland by a bridge. Clew Bay is full of drumlins that were drowned when the sea rose, which is where the story about an island for every day of the year comes from. Croagh Patrick stands over the south side of the bay. Mayo's population is still less than half what it was before the Famine.
All Cork prints · All Dublin prints · All Galway prints · All Kerry prints · All Mayo prints
Notable bearers
Joseph Lyons (1879-1939), politician, teacher, and trade unionist.
David Lyons (born 1976), film actor and television actor.
Sir John Lyons (1932-2020), university teacher, linguist, and philologist.
Nancy Lyons (born 1930), swimmer.
Ted Lyons (1900-1986), baseball player.
About this page
The counties on this page are where the name was thickest on the ground in Ireland a century and a half ago, not a claim about any one family. Names moved around inside the country as much as they left it. The photographs are mine, made in the counties named.
More Irish surnames: Johnson · Collins · Murphy · Howard · Coleman · Hayes · Mason · Palmer · Warren · Ryan · Lane · Franklin
How common the name was
In 1890, 210 births were registered under Lyons in Ireland, most of them in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, and Mayo.
| Munster | 85 | 40% |
|---|---|---|
| Connacht | 71 | 34% |
| Leinster | 31 | 15% |
| Ulster | 20 | 10% |
| Ireland | 210 |
Limerick is the one I haven't worked in.