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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Topic started by: KD146 on Wednesday 15 April 15 01:45 BST (UK)
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The name Keddy seems to be unique historically in Ireland to a small area of Co.Wicklow, centred around Kilquade. It appears nowhere else.
The similar name Keady seems to be common in Galway and the west, and seems to have no connection at all to the name Keddy.
Are there any suggestions where the name Keddy might have come from, and would it be a corruption of something else? I have traced Keddys back to the start of available records in Kilquade in 1826, but surely it is unusual for a name to be so localised to one sole parish?
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Wicklow is in Northern Ireland, I would think that the Keddy's were Ulster Scots and that they originally came from Scotland.
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Wicklow is in Northern Ireland, I would think that the Keddy's were Ulster Scots and that they originally came from Scotland.
Wicklow is not in Northern Ireland. It’s in the Republic of Ireland, south of Dublin.
Looking at the 1901 census there are 79 Keddys listed, all in Wicklow and Co Dublin. All were RC which would normally suggest they were native Irish, rather than descendants of plantation families. However this site describes the surname as rare and possibly of Scottish origins:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&UserID=
So possibly they are descendants of an RC Scottish plantation family (there were some) in the 1600s.
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C 1632 "Thomas Wentworth confiscated land in Wicklow and planned a full-scale Plantation of Connacht — where all Catholic landowners would lose between a half and a quarter of their estates".
In 1632 the border was probably debatable and some Scots were certainly Catholics.
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In 1632 the border was probably debatable and some Scots were certainly Catholics.
What border?
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There could most likely be corruption of names
A while back i was researching the name Cornelia from Baybush,Kildare.
I could not find them on Griffiths Valuations or Tithe Applotments.
Thanks to Sinann providing a link to the Leinster Leader i found an eviction order by Lord Barton in the 1890s for this family part of their defence was an agreement made earlier in the 1800s that one of the Cornelia's could stay on the land in return for his labour.
An old neighbour of the Cornelia's stated as a young boy that he had seen Mr Cornelia constructing the buildings on the land in the early 1800s and that they were over 100 years on this land.
So i went back to Griffiths Valuation and searched by townland and found them there in Baybush as
Keneela and possibly as Kennelly on the Tithe Applotments.
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A corruption of a name is highly possible or simply one man arrived in Wicklow attached to one of the 'grand' families, married a local girl and the rest as they say is history.
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Black's "Surnames" has Keddie/Keddy etc' as early as 1388 when the ship of a Scot John Kede was wrecked off Norfolk.
Fife, Lanark, Edinburgh & Caithness origin.
Skoosh.
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All very interesting folks, thanks indeed!
So Scottish origins are looking most likely? I found four Keddy men born in Kilquade in the 1800-1810 timeframe, Richard, William, John and James, though too early for baptisms. William, John and James all had firstborn sons named Richard, suggesting strongly, but wholly unverified, that the four were brothers, with a father called Richard. Kilquade church records don't begin until 1826, so I am unlikely to be able to get any verification of that theory.
They may of course be cousins rather than brothers, but the lack of too many Keddys locally, and none at all anywhere else, does suggest that they don't trace back much further than their father, or their grandfather at the earliest. It corroborates that they were likely all brothers, and that their father might have been the first Keddy to arrive.
I wonder now, would I find a Richard Keddy born in Scotland circa 1770-1780, who might have emigrated to Ireland? That sounds like a longshot indeed, and something I couldn't verify even if I did find one. But I suppose a tenuous lead is better than no lead at all.
Any thoughts, or am I likely to be at my brick wall? :)
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I've been tracing Scottish 'Keddies' for nigh on twenty years now, and I've found them listed variously as Keddy, Kedie, Keedie, Keddy, Reddie, Reddy, Heddy, Keddle, and a few others...I've lost a few along the way, possibly because they aren't listed as something I recognise as Keddie, and once you get back to 1820 it's almost impossible to identify the various families as there are a whole bundle of Johns, James, Davids, Andrews and Williams in the same area around the Borders, with nothing to show who they belong to. As far as I am aware at the moment I don't have any Catholics though! Maybe you should take a look in the Catholic records on Scotlands People?
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Keddy comes from the Basque term Bokedy meaning friend. They are a Cruithneach people from tribes Crownie and Cernonnicae. They are called Fidach in ancient language's and became clan Ross, Fergus, and Monro in Ireland originally pronounced Oorus. During the Stuart revolution they changed their name to Goddeau, Godin whilst in France. Alexander 1 and second as well as William settled New Ross, Mahone Bay and were the Mayors of this settlement for 300 years and formed first parliament in Halifax
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I'm going to go against the grain and suggest the name is, in fact, Irish. A fair number of Catholics seem to have the name on the census.
It seems to just be a variant of Keady. The spelling is no great obstacle. I have seen a priest change the spelling of his own name in the parish register. My G grandmother spelt her maiden name about four or five different ways. I've seen vowells added and taken away from names.
Anything with a Gaelic origin was certainly modified. Sometimes this made Irish names the same as certain British names even though they had separate origins and probably originally sounded distinct from one another. The more complicated townlands have many and diverse spellings.
One website gives its origin as Laois, which correct or not, is quite near enough to Wicklow. Besides, many surnames are derived from personal names which could be found in more than one place,
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My tuppence worth....
On the face of it Richard is not a 'common' Scottish name i.e. I would have to disagree on a Scottish ancestry unless they came from Ireland originally, followed traditional names before heading back to Ireland as I believe this did happen, coming & going?
Annie
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Interesting I found this, my Grandfather Patrick Keddy is from Wicklow in Ireland. Patrick migrated to Wales.