The O’Brien Surname
- Meaning
- descendant of Brian
- Type
- Patronymic
- Root
- Irish Ó Briain
- Chiefly
- Clare, Limerick and Tipperary
From Brian, a personal name usually connected to a root meaning ‘noble’ or ‘high’. The Ó prefix was widely dropped under English administration and widely restored in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Whether a family writes O’Brien or Brien today is often a matter of when an ancestor filled in a form.
Bestow the name a title it never had
An honorific Lord or Lady certificate in the O’Brien name, hand-finished and sealed, with a square metre of Scottish woodland dedicated alongside it. A novelty, magnificently done — and a good deal more fun than a family tree.
Choose a Package The Peerage Chart