Clan Rising

Richards

also Richardes

Son of Richard, the -s patronymic that crossed the Marches.

Origin
Morgannwg, Wales
Famous bearer
Henry Brinley Richards (1817-1885), composer of *God Bless the Prince of Wales*
Register
Welsh family

This name is thick on both sides of the border, so the map shows the whole of the British Isles with every region it touches highlighted. It is a regional pattern for the surname, not proof that your branch lived in each place.

Territory of Richards across Wales and England

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Richards

Seat vacant

Chief

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

The Richards 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 Richards clan →

What does the Richards name mean?

Son of Richard, in the genitive -s patronymic form ('Richard's', meaning Richard's son), frozen by Tudor-era surname compression. The same first name in its native Welsh ap-contraction yields Pritchard (ap Richard); the -s form is its Anglicised cousin, dominant in the southern Welsh parishes and across the West Country and the Welsh Marches, where Welsh and English surname conventions overlapped after the 1536-1543 Acts of Union. Richard itself is a Norman-French personal name (rīc-hard, strong-ruler) imported with the Conquest, made universal across Latin Christendom by Richard I Coeur-de-Lion (reigned 1189-1199), and carried into the parish registers of every English-speaking county in his wake.

The history of Richards

Richards is the cross-border patronymic, densest in the southern Welsh counties (Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, the Valleys, Carmarthenshire) and across the West Country and the Welsh Marches (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire). It is the -s genitive sibling of the Welsh Pritchard (ap Richard); where Pritchard preserves the spoken Welsh contraction, Richards adopts the English parish-register convention, and the two forms run in parallel in the same southern Welsh registers through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Henry Brinley Richards (1817-1885), born at Carmarthen, was the foremost Welsh composer-pianist of the mid-nineteenth century, gold medallist of the Royal Academy of Music, friend of Chopin and Mendelssohn, and composer of the anthem *God Bless the Prince of Wales* (1862) for the investiture of the future Edward VII. Ceri Richards (1903-1971), born at Dunvant near Swansea, was one of the most distinguished British painters of the mid-twentieth century, a Royal Academician whose late series on the poetry of Dylan Thomas is now held by the Tate.

Sir Gordon Richards (1904-1986), born at Donnington Wood in Shropshire on the English side of the Welsh Marches, was the foremost British flat-racing jockey of the twentieth century: fourteen times British Champion Jockey, knighted in the 1953 Coronation Honours (the first jockey in English racing history to be so honoured), and on the sixth of June 1953, in the same week, winner of the Coronation Derby on Pinza at his twenty-eighth and final attempt.

Also found in

The Richards name has substantial historical presence beyond Wales. See it on England.

Notable bearers of the Richards name

  • Henry Brinley Richards (1817-1885), composer of *God Bless the Prince of Wales*
  • Sir Gordon Richards (1904-1986), fourteen-time British Champion Jockey, 1953 Derby winner
  • Ceri Richards (1903-1971), painter, Royal Academician
  • I. A. Richards (1893-1979), Cambridge literary critic, founder of New Criticism

Stories of Richards

Frequently asked

What does the surname Richards mean?

Son of Richard, in the genitive -s patronymic form ('Richard's', meaning Richard's son), frozen by Tudor-era surname compression. The same first name in its native Welsh ap-contraction yields Pritchard (ap Richard); the -s form is its Anglicised cousin, dominant in the southern Welsh parishes and across the West Country and the Welsh Marches, where Welsh and English surname conventions overlapped after the 1536-1543 Acts of Union. Richard itself is a Norman-French personal name (rīc-hard, strong-ruler) imported with the Conquest, made universal across Latin Christendom by Richard I Coeur-de-Lion (reigned 1189-1199), and carried into the parish registers of every English-speaking county in his wake. Richards is the cross-border patronymic, densest in the southern Welsh counties (Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, the Valleys, Carmarthenshire) and across the West Country and the Welsh Marches (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire).

Where does the Richards family come from?

The Richards family is rooted in Morgannwg, Gwent and Deheubarth, in Wales. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in The Valleys, Bro Morgannwg, Sir Fynwy and Sir Gâr. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Richards family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Richards name has been concentrated in Cardiff, Ceredigion, Powys and Sir Benfro. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Richards a Wales surname?

Richards is primarily a Wales surname; it also has substantial historical presence in England. The editorial home of the name in this atlas is Wales, where the record is densest, with the cross-border presence noted under "Also found in".

How old is the Richards surname?

Richards is the cross-border patronymic, densest in the southern Welsh counties (Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, the Valleys, Carmarthenshire) and across the West Country and the Welsh Marches (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire). European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Richards name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Richards family known for?

Son of Richard, the -s patronymic that crossed the Marches. Richards is the cross-border patronymic, densest in the southern Welsh counties (Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, the Valleys, Carmarthenshire) and across the West Country and the Welsh Marches (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire).

Who is the most famous Richards?

The best-known bearer of the Richards name is Henry Brinley Richards (1817-1885), composer of *God Bless the Prince of Wales*. Other prominent figures of the family include Sir Gordon Richards (1904-1986), fourteen-time British Champion Jockey, 1953 Derby winner, Ceri Richards (1903-1971), painter, Royal Academician and I. A. Richards (1893-1979), Cambridge literary critic, founder of New Criticism.

Who are some famous Richardses?

Notable bearers of the Richards name include Henry Brinley Richards (1817-1885), composer of *God Bless the Prince of Wales*, Sir Gordon Richards (1904-1986), fourteen-time British Champion Jockey, 1953 Derby winner, Ceri Richards (1903-1971), painter, Royal Academician and I. A. Richards (1893-1979), Cambridge literary critic, founder of New Criticism. 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 Richards family?

The Richards family is associated with Sir Gordon Richards at the Coronation Derby. 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 Sir Gordon Richards at the Coronation Derby?

On the afternoon of Saturday the sixth of June 1953, in front of a Downs crowd estimated by the Epsom course authorities at five hundred thousand, the forty-nine-year-old British flat-racing jockey Sir Gordon Richards (born at Donnington Wood in Shropshire on the fifth of May 1904, son of the coal miner and lay-preacher Nathan Richards) rode the bay colt Pinza, by Chanteur II out of Pasqua, owned by Sir Victor Sassoon and trained by Norman Bertie at Newmarket, to a four-length victory in the One Hundred and Seventy-Fourth Epsom Derby Stakes (one mile, four furlongs and six yards), beating Aureole (the colt of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, four days into her reign, the new Queen herself in the royal box with the Duke of Edinburgh) into second place. It was Richards's twenty-eighth Derby ride in twenty-nine years and his first Derby win; he had been knighted in the Coronation Honours announced on the morning of Monday the first of June 1953, the first jockey in the history of English flat racing to receive the honour, and the Queen had been crowned at Westminster Abbey on the Tuesday following; the Derby on the Saturday closed out the Coronation week as the public sporting occasion of the new reign. The event is dated to 1953.

Is Richardes the same family as Richards?

Yes. Richardes is a historical spelling variant of the Richards 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 Richards surname found today?

Wales is the primary historical home of the Richards 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 Wales origin recorded on this page.

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

The Clan Rising page for the Richards family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, 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 Wales so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Richards family today?

The seat for the head of the Richards 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.

Neighbouring clans