Clan Rising

Daly

also O'Daly, Daley, Ó Dálaigh

Of Corca Adain, the bardic family that taught Gaelic Ireland to write.

Origin
Leinster, Ireland
Motto
Deo fidelis et regi
Famous bearer
Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh (c.1175–1244), bardic master-poet, abbot of Boyle
Register
Irish family
Territory of Daly

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Daly

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Daly community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Daly has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Daly clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

Help rebuild the Daly clan →

Motto

Deo fidelis et regi

Faithful to God and king

What does the Daly name mean?

From Ó Dálaigh, descendant of Dálach. Dálach was an early-12th-century chief of a kindred at Corca Adain in west Meath, but the surname is overwhelmingly remembered for what came after: from the late 12th century onwards the Ó Dálaigh were the most prestigious bardic family in Gaelic Ireland, the hereditary file (poets) of the four provincial royal houses, holding bardic schools in Westmeath, Cavan, Clare and Cork that trained the entire poet-class of mediaeval Ireland for four hundred years.

The history of Daly

The Ó Dálaigh bardic schools, attested from c.1170 to the collapse of the Gaelic order in the 17th century, ran the formal training of the file, the trained court poets, for the four great provincial kingdoms of Ireland. A fully-trained ollamh (master-poet) had spent twelve years at an Ó Dálaigh school memorising the metre, the form, the genealogies and the law-tracts in the difficult bardic register of Classical Irish. Among the great names: Aonghus Fionn Ó Dálaigh, Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, the surname stamped on the surviving corpus of medieval Gaelic poetry like a watermark.

Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (1911–1978), the modern bearer of one of the most resonant of those bardic names, served as the fifth President of Ireland from 1974 to his resignation in 1976, and previously as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 1961–1973. Richard J. Daley (1902–1976), Mayor of Chicago for twenty-one years, descended from a Famine-era Irish-Daly emigrant line. The American spelling Daley is a variant of the same surname; the apostrophe-O is now uncommon in either form.

Champions of the Daly name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Daly name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Notable bearers of the Daly name

  • Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh (c.1175–1244), bardic master-poet, abbot of Boyle
  • Aonghus Fionn Ó Dálaigh (1540–1601), Tudor-era bardic poet
  • Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (1911–1978), President of Ireland, Chief Justice
  • Richard J. Daley (1902–1976), Mayor of Chicago
  • John Daly (b. 1966), American golfer; two-time major champion (PGA 1991, Open 1995)

Stories of Daly

Frequently asked

What does the surname Daly mean?

From Ó Dálaigh, descendant of Dálach. Dálach was an early-12th-century chief of a kindred at Corca Adain in west Meath, but the surname is overwhelmingly remembered for what came after: from the late 12th century onwards the Ó Dálaigh were the most prestigious bardic family in Gaelic Ireland, the hereditary file (poets) of the four provincial royal houses, holding bardic schools in Westmeath, Cavan, Clare and Cork that trained the entire poet-class of mediaeval Ireland for four hundred years. The Ó Dálaigh bardic schools, attested from c.

Where does the Daly family come from?

The Daly family is rooted in Leinster, in Ireland. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Westmeath. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Daly family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Daly name has been concentrated in Galway, Cork, Clare and Cavan. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Daly a Ireland surname?

Yes, Daly is a Ireland surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is Ireland, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Daly surname?

The Ó Dálaigh bardic schools, attested from c. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Daly name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Daly family known for?

Of Corca Adain, the bardic family that taught Gaelic Ireland to write. The Ó Dálaigh bardic schools, attested from c.

What is the Daly motto?

The motto of the Daly family is "Deo fidelis et regi", which translates as "Faithful to God and king". Family mottoes were registered with the chief of the name and carried on the heraldic arms and battle-banners.

What does "Deo fidelis et regi" mean in English?

"Deo fidelis et regi" is the motto of the Daly family. In English it means "Faithful to God and king". The phrase is typically rendered in Latin, though some Highland families carry their motto in Gaelic and some Norman lines in Old French.

Who is the most famous Daly?

The best-known bearer of the Daly name is Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh (c.1175–1244), bardic master-poet, abbot of Boyle. Other prominent figures of the family include Aonghus Fionn Ó Dálaigh (1540–1601), Tudor-era bardic poet, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (1911–1978), President of Ireland, Chief Justice and Richard J. Daley (1902–1976), Mayor of Chicago.

Who are some famous Dalys?

Notable bearers of the Daly name include Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh (c.1175–1244), bardic master-poet, abbot of Boyle, Aonghus Fionn Ó Dálaigh (1540–1601), Tudor-era bardic poet, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (1911–1978), President of Ireland, Chief Justice, Richard J. Daley (1902–1976), Mayor of Chicago and John Daly (b. 1966), American golfer; two-time major champion (PGA 1991, Open 1995). Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Daly family?

The Daly family is associated with John Daly wins the PGA Championship as ninth alternate. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of John Daly wins the PGA Championship as ninth alternate?

On the late afternoon of Sunday the eleventh of August 1991, on the difficult Pete Dye-designed Crooked Stick Golf Club outside Indianapolis, the twenty-five-year-old Carmichael, California-born Arkansas-tour journeyman professional John Patrick Daly, a complete unknown on the senior PGA Tour who had been the ninth-alternate-on-the-Monday-of-tournament-week (which is to say, ninth in the queue of players standing by for any withdrawal from the 144-player field after the qualifying tournaments had closed), drove the seven-hour overnight road-trip from Memphis to Carmel, Indiana, in his small car on the Wednesday evening of the seventh of August on the eighth-alternate-call when Brad Bryant withdrew at noon, played the Crooked Stick course for the first time in his life across the standard Thursday practice-round on the morning of the eighth (Daly had not played a single practice-round of the course before the tournament, on the strength of the late call-up), and across the four-day tournament from Thursday the eighth to Sunday the eleventh of August 1991 took the lead at the end of the first round on the strength of his prodigious driving distance (Daly carried the ball approximately 290 yards on the long Crooked Stick par-fives, the longest driving-distance on the senior PGA Tour of the year), held the lead across the second, third and fourth rounds, and finished the seventy-second hole at twelve-under-par with a three-shot winning margin over the runner-up Bruce Lietzke to take the seventy-third Professional Golfers' Association of America Championship, the central single sensational debut-win of the modern PGA Tour era and the foundational moment of the John Daly grip-it-and-rip-it Long John public legend. The event is dated to 1991.

Is O'Daly the same family as Daly?

Yes. O'Daly is a historical spelling variant of the Daly name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Is Daley the same family as Daly?

Yes. Daley is a historical spelling variant of the Daly name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Is Ó Dálaigh the same family as Daly?

Yes. Ó Dálaigh is a historical spelling variant of the Daly name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Where is the Daly surname found today?

Ireland is the primary historical home of the Daly surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same Ireland origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Daly family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Daly family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, the family motto, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of Ireland so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Daly family today?

The seat for the head of the Daly family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.