Ryan
An Irish surname of Clare, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Tipperary, and Wexford. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 143,452 people, the 193rd most common surname in the country.
Ryan 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.
Ó Maoilriaghain, Ó Maoilriain, descendant of Maolriain (follower of Riaghan or Rian). This family stood in Co. Limerick and Co. Tipperary.
Ó Ruadháin, descendant of Ruadhán (diminutive of ruadh , red). This family stood in Co. Galway and Co. Mayo.
Ó Ruaidhín, descendant of Ruaidhín (diminutive of ruadh , red)
Ó Sraitheáin, Ó Sruitheáin, Ó Srutháin. This family stood in Co. Cork and Co. Mayo.
Where the name comes from
Most Ryans come from Ó Maoilriain, a family of Leinster origin who settled in the 13th or 14th century in Uaithne-tire and Uaithne-cliach, now the baronies of Owney in Co. Tipperary and Owneybeg in the east of Co. Limerick. They became very numerous and powerful there.
In 1610 William Ryan surrendered to the king all his landed property and all his rights in the barony (an old land division, several parishes across) of Owney O Mulrian, and received them back by letters patent (an open royal grant, publicly recorded). The family property was lost all the same, in the confiscations of the 17th century.
Not every Ryan is one of them. Ó Ruadháin was an old Mayo family of the Ui Fiachrach who possessed a district between Newbrook and Killeen, to the north of Ballinrobe, and an old Galway family of the Ui Maine race, no fewer than seven of whom were bishops of various sees in Connacht in the 12th and 13th centuries. The name is generally anglicised Ruane, but it sometimes surfaces as Ryan.
A fourth name arrives by a stranger road again. Ó Srutháin was an old Tirconnell family whose head was chief of Clann Snedhgile, a sept (a branch of a larger family group) of the Cinel Conaill seated in Glenswilly to the west of Letterkenny, and erenagh (the hereditary lay head of a family that held church lands) of Conwall in the same district. Some of them came southward before the end of the 16th century and settled in Co. Cork, where the name is still extant, though often translated Bywater, as if from sruthán, a streamlet. In Co. Mayo it is sometimes strangely anglicised Ryan.
The Ryan counties, photographed
Clare
Clare is the Burren: bare limestone pavement where Arctic and Mediterranean plants grow side by side. The Cliffs of Moher are on the coast. Doolin and Miltown Malbay are two of the best-known traditional music towns in the country.
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.
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
Tipperary
Tipperary is landlocked. The Golden Vale running through it is the best dairy land in Ireland. The Galtees are along the southern border, with Galtymore at 917 metres. The Rock of Cashel is a limestone outcrop with a medieval cathedral and round tower on top of it.
Wexford
Wexford gets more sunshine than anywhere else in Ireland. Hook Head lighthouse has been working since the thirteenth century, which makes it one of the oldest in the world. The beaches on that coast, Curracloe and Rosslare among them, run for miles and are mostly empty.
All Clare prints · All Cork prints · All Dublin prints · All Galway prints · All Tipperary prints · All Wexford prints
Notable bearers
Meg Ryan (born 1961), actor.
Debby Ryan (born 1993), actor, singer, and composer.
Paul Ryan (born 1970), politician and congressional staff.
Kate Ryan (born 1980), singer.
Mathew Ryan (born 1992), association football 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: Murphy
How common the name was
In 1890, 715 births were registered under Ryan in Ireland, most of them in Clare, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, and Wexford.
| Munster | 473 | 66% |
|---|---|---|
| Leinster | 180 | 25% |
| Connacht | 49 | 7% |
| Ulster | 13 | 2% |
| Ireland | 715 |
Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford are the ones I haven't worked in.