Kelly

also O'Kelly, Ó Ceallaigh

Second most common Irish surname, the Uí Maine of Galway, and six other dynasties besides.

Origin: Connacht, Ireland
Motto: Turris fortis mihi Deus
Famous bearer: William Buidhe Ó Ceallaigh, 14th-c. lord of Uí Maine, host of the great 1351 feast
Register: Irish family

Territory of Kelly

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Kelly

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Kelly 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 Kelly has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

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

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Motto

Turris fortis mihi Deus

“God is to me a tower of strength”

What does the Kelly name mean?

Anglicised from Ó Ceallaigh, descendant of Ceallach. Ceallach is an Old Irish personal name often glossed as 'bright-headed' or 'frequenter of churches', though the etymology is contested. At least seven distinct Ó Ceallaigh kindreds gave rise to the modern Kellys, the principal one being the Uí Maine of east Galway and south Roscommon. The Anglicised form Kelly displaced the Gaelic by the 18th century; the older O'Kelly form persists in family-name register but is less commonly written.

The history of Kelly

Kelly is the second most common surname in Ireland, after Murphy. The largest of the seven historic Ó Ceallaigh kindreds was the Uí Maine, lords of a kingdom that stretched from the eastern shore of Lough Ree across south Roscommon and east Galway, a territory roughly the size of Connacht's eastern half. They held it under the high kings of Connacht for six hundred years, from the 6th-century descent from Maine Mór to the Cromwellian dispossession of 1652.

William Buidhe Ó Ceallaigh, 14th-century lord of Uí Maine, is remembered for the great Christmas feast of 1351 at his castle of Galey on Lough Ree, the largest gathering of Gaelic poets, harpers and historians in the medieval Irish record, attended by men from every part of Ireland and lasting through the twelve days. The phrase 'fáilte Uí Cheallaigh', the welcome of the O'Kellys, entered the Irish language as a synonym for the most generous hospitality.

Grace Kelly (1929–1982), born in Philadelphia to a family of Mayo-Kelly descent and crowned Princess of Monaco in 1956, is the most internationally famous Kelly. Gene Kelly (1912–1996), the dancer; Ned Kelly (1854–1880), the bushranger of Australian Tipperary descent; Captain Edward Kelly VC of the Boer War; Petra Kelly the German Green leader (descended from a Bavarian-Kelly line of Irish emigration), all from the same broad Ó Ceallaigh surname pool that began on the eastern shore of the Shannon a thousand years ago.

Champions of the Kelly name

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

Ned Kelly
The Beveridge-born son of a Tipperary transported convict who from 1878 to 1880 led the Kelly Gang across the north-east Victorian high country and on the twenty-seventh of June 1880 stood at Glenrowan in the home-made armoured suit that has become the central single image of Australian folk memory.

Step Into History

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

Step Into History · New

Walk Galway in 1520Enter →

The walled City of the Tribes at its Spanish-trade height — the quays, Lynch's Castle, and the fourteen merchant families.

Notable bearers of the Kelly name

William Buidhe Ó Ceallaigh, 14th-c. lord of Uí Maine, host of the great 1351 feast
Grace Kelly (1929–1982), actress, Princess of Monaco
Ned Kelly (1854–1880), Australian bushranger of Tipperary-Kelly descent
Gene Kelly (1912–1996), dancer, choreographer

Stories of Kelly

Ned Kelly at Glenrowan
1880
On the night of the twenty-seventh of June 1880, the bushranger gang of Edward (Ned) Kelly, twenty-five years old, the son of John Kelly the Tipperary-emigrant convict and Ellen Quinn of Antrim, in the third year of his outlaw career across the north-east of the colony of Victoria in Australia, attempted to derail a special police train bringing reinforcements to the village of Glenrowan, in the dry interior country two hundred kilometres north-east of Melbourne. The plan failed because the schoolmaster Thomas Curnow, held hostage with about sixty other villagers in the Glenrowan Inn, slipped out to the railway line with a candle and a red scarf and stopped the train. The siege of the inn ran from three in the morning of the twenty-eighth of June through the early afternoon. Ned Kelly was captured wounded outside the inn at first light, in his now-iconic suit of armour fashioned from the mould-board plates of agricultural ploughs, having taken twenty-eight bullets in the legs and arms. His brother Dan Kelly and the gang's other members, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, died inside the burning inn. Ned was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol on the eleventh of November 1880. His last words on the scaffold, by the tradition, are recorded as Such is life. He was twenty-five.
Read the story →

Frequently asked

What does the surname Kelly mean?

Where does the Kelly family come from?

The Kelly family is rooted in Connacht, in Ireland. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Galway and Roscommon. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Kelly family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Kelly name has been concentrated in Offaly, Mayo, Leitrim, Sligo and Derry. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Kelly a Ireland surname?

Yes, Kelly 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 Kelly surname?

Kelly is the second most common surname in Ireland, after Murphy. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Kelly name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Kelly family known for?

Second most common Irish surname, the Uí Maine of Galway, and six other dynasties besides. Kelly is the second most common surname in Ireland, after Murphy.

What is the Kelly motto?

The motto of the Kelly family is "Turris fortis mihi Deus", which translates as "God is to me a tower of strength". Family mottoes were registered with the chief of the name and carried on the heraldic arms and battle-banners.

What does "Turris fortis mihi Deus" mean in English?

"Turris fortis mihi Deus" is the motto of the Kelly family. In English it means "God is to me a tower of strength". 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 Kelly?

The best-known bearer of the Kelly name is William Buidhe Ó Ceallaigh, 14th-c. lord of Uí Maine, host of the great 1351 feast. Other prominent figures of the family include Grace Kelly (1929–1982), actress, Princess of Monaco, Ned Kelly (1854–1880), Australian bushranger of Tipperary-Kelly descent and Gene Kelly (1912–1996), dancer, choreographer.

Who are some famous Kellys?

Notable bearers of the Kelly name include William Buidhe Ó Ceallaigh, 14th-c. lord of Uí Maine, host of the great 1351 feast, Grace Kelly (1929–1982), actress, Princess of Monaco, Ned Kelly (1854–1880), Australian bushranger of Tipperary-Kelly descent and Gene Kelly (1912–1996), dancer, choreographer. 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 Kelly family?

The Kelly family is associated with Ned Kelly at Glenrowan. 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 Ned Kelly at Glenrowan?

On the night of the twenty-seventh of June 1880, the bushranger gang of Edward (Ned) Kelly, twenty-five years old, the son of John Kelly the Tipperary-emigrant convict and Ellen Quinn of Antrim, in the third year of his outlaw career across the north-east of the colony of Victoria in Australia, attempted to derail a special police train bringing reinforcements to the village of Glenrowan, in the dry interior country two hundred kilometres north-east of Melbourne. The plan failed because the schoolmaster Thomas Curnow, held hostage with about sixty other villagers in the Glenrowan Inn, slipped out to the railway line with a candle and a red scarf and stopped the train. The event is dated to 1880.

Is O'Kelly the same family as Kelly?

Yes. O'Kelly is a historical spelling variant of the Kelly 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 Ceallaigh the same family as Kelly?

Yes. Ó Ceallaigh is a historical spelling variant of the Kelly 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 Kelly surname found today?

Ireland is the primary historical home of the Kelly 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 Kelly family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Kelly 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 Kelly family today?

The seat for the head of the Kelly 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.