Kelly History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The Irish name Kelly has a long Gaelic heritage to its credit. The original Gaelic form of the name Kelly is O Ceallaigh or Mac Ceallaigh. These names denote descendants of Ceallach. This personal name may be derived from the word “ceallach,” which means “strife.”

Early Origins of the Kelly family

The surname Kelly was first found in southwest Ireland, south of Dublin where they held a family seat from very ancient times. The Kelly surname is conjecturally descended from King Colla da Crioch, who died in 357 A.D.

While most of the family claim Ireland as their heritage, we did find one reference in England: “Kelly, [Devon] is noteworthy as affording one of the few continuing local instances of families seated on the estates whence they take name. The Kellys of Kelly have held this manor from the time of Henry II. at least. ” [1]

Henry II, King of England reigned from 1154 to 1189; so one may presume there is a relationship between the Irish and the English families, but this is the extent of our research at this time.

Early History of the Kelly family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Kelly research.

Kelly Spelling Variations

Irish names were rarely spelled consistently in the Middle Ages. Spelling variations of the name Kelly dating from that time include Kelly, Kellie, O’Kelly, O’Killia and others.

Early Notables of the Kelly family (pre 1700)

Prominent amongst the family at this time was Daniel MacKelly; Sir Edward Kelley or Kelly, also known as Edward Talbot (1555-1597), Irish occultist and self-declared spirit medium; Charles O’Kelly (1621-1695) was an Irish soldier and writer from Aughrim, County Galway; and James Gilliam, also known as James Kelly, (died 1701), an English pirate active in the Indian Ocean during the 1690s and was.

Kelly World Ranking

In the United States, the name Kelly is the 74^th most popular surname with an estimated 253,674 people with that name. [2] However, in Canada, the name Kelly is ranked the 60^th most popular surname with an estimated 35,114 people with that name. [3] And in Quebec, Canada, the name Kelly is the 649^th popular surname. [4] Newfoundland, Canada ranks Kelly as 29^thwith 697 people. [5] Australia ranks Kelly as 15^th with 55,407 people. [6] New Zealand ranks Kelly as 63^rd with 4,991 people. [7] The United Kingdom ranks Kelly as 50^th with 81,180 people. [8]

 Kelly migration to the United States +

To escape the religious and political discrimination they experienced primarily at the hands of the English, thousands of Irish left their homeland in the 19th century. These migrants typically settled in communities throughout the East Coast of North America, but also joined the wagon trains moving out to the Midwest. Ironically, when the American War of Independence began, many Irish settlers took the side of England, and at the war’s conclusion moved north to Canada. These United Empire Loyalists, were granted land along the St. Lawrence River and the Niagara Peninsula. Other Irish immigrants settled in Newfoundland, the Ottawa Valley, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The greatest influx of Irish immigrants, however, came to North America during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. Thousands left Ireland at this time for North America and Australia. Many of those numbers, however, did not live through the long sea passage. These Irish settlers to North America were immediately put to work building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. Irish settlers made an inestimable contribution to the building of the New World. Early North American immigration records have revealed a number of people bearing the Irish name Kelly or a variant listed above, including: 

Kelly Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

• Brian Kelly, who purchased land in Virginia in 1635
• Bryan Kelly, who landed in Maryland in 1635 [9]
• Mr. Brian Kelly, (b. 1615), aged 20, British settler traveling aboard the ship “Safety” arriving in Virginia in 1635 [10]
• Abraham Kelly, who landed in Virginia in 1640 [9]
• Abel Kelly, who arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1641