Breathnach or Bhreathnach (meaning Welshman) is an Irish surname, indicating an ancestor who was Welsh. It is the Irish-language version of surnames such as Brannagh, Brunnock, Brannick, Walsh, Wallace, and Wallis.
However, it does not necessarily mean that the ancestor concerned was from modern-day Wales; Robert Bell notes that Wallace was a surname indicating a Briton native of Strathclyde or any part of the Latin name Wallensis meant just that. It can also refer to the Cambro-Normans (later Hiberno-Normans) that were of Norman origin, but came to Ireland via Wales. The name appears in twelfth-century records of Ayrshire and Renfrewshire, parts of the old Strathclyde kingdom ... Wallace has also been used as a synonym of Walsh." (Bell, p. 244). The best known bearer of the name from the area was Uilleam Breatnach (William Wallace).
John de Courcy (1160–1219) planted significant numbers of Britons of Cumbria during his lordship of Ulster. Gaelic-Irish sources such as Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh concur, referring to such people as breatnaigh, denoting a Briton (see Old Welsh) (Medieval Ireland, p. 514).
Bearers of the name
Breandán Breathnach, music collector and uilleann piper
Cárthach Bán Breathnach, actor and DJ
Cormac Breathnach, teacher and politician
Edel Bhreathnach, academic and historian
Deasún Breathnach, writer and journalist
Fiachra Breathnach, Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) sportsperson
Gearóidín Bhreathnach, sean-nós singer
Lucilita Bhreatnach, Sinn Féin politician
Maire Breathnach, actress
Máire Breatnach, musician and educator
Mícheál Breathnach (1881-1908), writer
Micheál Breathnach (1886-after 1954), educator and writer
Niamh Bhreathnach, Irish Labour Party politician
Paddy Breathnach, film director and producer
Pádraic Breathnach, actor and producer
Seán Bán Breathnach, radio and television personality
Séanna Breathnach, Provisional Irish Republican Army and Sinn Féin member
Séamus Breathnach, Lab analyst
See also
Míchael Breathnach GAC, a Gaelic Athletic Association club
Bhreathnach
References
The Book of Ulster Surnames, Robert Bell, 1988. Walsh:Breathnach, Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 2003 Welsh Influence in Medieval Ireland:An Encyclopedia (2005), ed. Seán Duffy, p. 514.
External links
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&UserID=
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&Surname=Walsh&UserID=