surnames.ie

Irish surname · 54th most common in 1911

Brady

Brady is the English form of Mac Brádaigh, 'son of Brádach', a name usually explained as 'spirited'. The Mac Brádaigh family were chiefs of Cúil Bhríde, around Stradone in Co. Cavan, in the old kingdom of Breifne, and supplied several medieval bishops of Kilmore.

Irish Mac BrádaighIrish Ó BrádaighIrish Ó Grádaigh (Ó Gráda)Irish Ó Bradacáin
1901 census
10,697
#54 · 24 per 10,000
1911 census
10,749
#54 · 25 per 10,000
1926 census
9,122
#50 · 31 per 10,000
Most numerous
Cavan
Highest share: Cavan

Language & meaning

Meaning & Irish forms

Gaelic Gaelic Irish: chiefly the Mac Brádaigh family of Breifne in Co. Cavan, with a few Bradys of O'Grady origin in Clare and Limerick.[1][2]

Mac Brádaigh
“son of Brádach”[1][3][4]
The main source of Brady: Woulfe calls it the name of a great Cavan family. The Gaois dataset pairs both Mac Brádaigh and Ó Brádaigh with Brady.
Ó Brádaigh
“descendant of Brádach”[5][3][6]
Woulfe thought this was probably just a variant of Mac Brádaigh, always rare. It is the form used by the republican leader Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.
Ó Grádaigh (Ó Gráda)
“descendant of Gráda”[2][4]
A separate Clare family, normally O'Grady. Woulfe says that some of them, for reasons he could not explain, came to be called O'Brady or Brady in the 16th century.
Ó Bradacáin
“a Mayo variant of Ó Bradacháin”[7]
Normally Bradican, but Woulfe notes that it was sometimes made Brady in Co. Mayo.

The name is built on the personal name Brádach, usually explained as “spirited”. Woulfe glosses Brádach as 'spirited', and Wikipedia's Mac Brádaigh article gives the same meaning. The Brady surname article adds 'broad', and Wiktionary notes that some English Bradys have an unrelated Old English place-name origin.[1][4][8][9]

Pronunciation

Brady: BRAY-dee

Ó Brádaigh: oh BRAW-dee /oː ˈbˠɾˠaːd̪ˠiː/[6]

Place

Where the Bradys lived

How common the name was in each county, as a share of the population, in the three surviving full censuses of Ireland. Use the buttons to compare years.

Donegal: 4.2 per 10,000 (70 people) Waterford: 0.7 per 10,000 (6 people) Dublin: 37.9 per 10,000 (1,819 people) Kilkenny: 5.5 per 10,000 (41 people) Carlow: 15.1 per 10,000 (55 people) Limerick: 1.7 per 10,000 (24 people) Louth: 29.1 per 10,000 (183 people) Tipperary: 3.3 per 10,000 (51 people) Roscommon: 23.4 per 10,000 (220 people) Meath: 89.7 per 10,000 (585 people) Wicklow: 35.5 per 10,000 (216 people) Cavan: 374.5 per 10,000 (3,421 people) Cork: 7.1 per 10,000 (280 people) Clare: 10 per 10,000 (104 people) Galway: 7.3 per 10,000 (133 people) Mayo: 11.3 per 10,000 (217 people) Sligo: 25 per 10,000 (198 people) Leitrim: 34.9 per 10,000 (220 people) Offaly: 10.7 per 10,000 (61 people) Laois: 11.7 per 10,000 (64 people) Kildare: 25.3 per 10,000 (169 people) Kerry: 1.8 per 10,000 (28 people) Monaghan: 50.2 per 10,000 (359 people) Wexford: 10.4 per 10,000 (107 people) Longford: 149.9 per 10,000 (657 people) Westmeath: 25.6 per 10,000 (154 people) Tyrone: 6.1 per 10,000 (87 people) Antrim: 11.5 per 10,000 (551 people) Armagh: 17.7 per 10,000 (212 people) Fermanagh: 28 per 10,000 (170 people) Londonderry: 5 per 10,000 (70 people) Down: 7.1 per 10,000 (217 people)
fewerup to 379 per 10,000

Share of each county's census population. 1926 covers the 26 counties of the Irish Free State only.

Highest concentration · 1911

Cavan

375 per 10,000

3,421 Bradys · 15.3× the national share

Highest share, 1911

  1. Cavan 375
  2. Longford 150
  3. Meath 90
  4. Monaghan 50
  5. Dublin 38
  6. Wicklow 36
  7. Leitrim 35
  8. Louth 29

Per 10,000 residents. A concentration index above 1 means the name was commoner there than nationally.

County figures as a table
County190119111926Per 10k 1901Per 10k 1911Per 10k 1926
Antrim502551—1112—
Armagh154212—1218—
Carlow755546201513
Cavan3,5903,4213,121368375379
Clare100104779108
Cork259280270777
Donegal447045343
Down257217—97—
Dublin1,6391,8191,945373839
Fermanagh160170—2528—
Galway118133154679
Kerry212842123
Kildare193169182322532
Kilkenny264149367
Laois916460161212
Leitrim232220189333533
Limerick532432422
Londonderry6370—45—
Longford677657565145150142
Louth187183155292925
Mayo215217203111112
Meath602585610869098
Monaghan366359349495054
Offaly37616061111
Roscommon237220215242326
Sligo146198203182529
Tipperary515163335
Tyrone8687—66—
Waterford3615012
Westmeath175154167282630
Wexford9810711291012
Wicklow240216193403634

Local strongholds in 1911

District Electoral Divisions (300+ residents) where Bradys made up the largest share of the population. In Laradh North, Co. Cavan, about one resident in 6 was a Brady.

DEDCountyBradysShare
Laradh NorthCavan202 18.1%
LurganCavan101 14.9%
CuttraghCavan60 11.1%
CrosskeysCavan115 11.0%
ClonervyCavan88 10.9%
Larah SouthCavan117 10.5%
StonefieldMeath33 10.3%
DrungCavan92 9.0%

Origins

Septs & territories

Many Irish surnames were adopted independently by unrelated families. These are the distinct Brady lineages described in the sources.

A surname can point you towards a place. On its own, it cannot establish a pedigree.

Mac Brádaigh of Cúil Bhríde

Cúil Bhríde (Cúil Bhríghdéin), the district around Stradone; also Teallach Cearbhaill · Cavan

Woulfe calls the Mac Brádaigh chief the lord of Cúil Bhríde, around Stradone, and Wikipedia adds Teallach Cerbaill near the same village. They were a family of clerics and freeholders in what became the barony of Loughtee Upper, a heartland of their O'Reilly overlords. Their chiefs appear in the Annals of the Four Masters, and Burke styles a later branch, of Toneymore, 'formerly Barons of Loughtee'.[1][4][10][11]

Bradys of O'Grady stock

Tomgraney district; later Raheen, Co. Clare, and Co. Limerick · Clare, Limerick

Woulfe says that the Dalcassian Ó Grádaigh family took the forms O'Brady and Brady in the 16th century. According to Woulfe, Hugh Brady, the first Protestant bishop of Meath, was Sir Donogh O'Grady's son, and from him came the Raheen Bradys of Co. Clare. Wikipedia instead calls the bishop a native of Dunboyne in Co. Meath, so this link is uncertain.[2][12][4]

The name over time

History

A Breifne family

The Bradys belong to Breifne, the medieval overkingdom that covered most of Cavan and Leitrim and corresponds roughly to the diocese of Kilmore. Wikipedia's genealogy traces the family through the Uí Briúin Bréifne to Brión, son of Eochaid Mugmedon, and names a Brádach whose descendants took the surname. After Breifne split in 1256, the east became the O'Reilly kingdom of Breifne Uí Raghallaigh, later Co. Cavan. The Mac Brádaigh chiefs held Cúil Bhríde, the country around Stradone, within it.[13][4][14][1]

Chiefs, clerics and freeholders

The annals record Tighearnán Mac Brádaigh, chief of the name, who died in 1256. Wikipedia describes the family in Loughtee Upper as clerics and freeholders, ruling Cúl Brighde and Teallach Cerbaill near Stradone, in a barony that was the centre of O'Reilly power. In 1609, during the Plantation of Ulster, Loughtee was made a barony and its rich land allotted first to the Crown and then to undertakers. Burke later describes the MacBradys of Toneymore as an old Irish family who had once been barons of Loughtee.[4][10][11]

Bishops of Kilmore

The family was closely tied to the church in Breifne. Wikipedia lists Mac Brádaigh bishops of Kilmore who died in 1421, 1445, 1511 and 1559, and a Gilbert Mac Brádaigh who was bishop of Ardagh from 1396. The diocese article credits Bishop Aindrias Mac Brádaigh (Andrew MacBrady) with winning papal permission in 1454 to make St Felim's old church at Kilmore the cathedral, rebuilt as An Chill Mhór, the 'great church'; the two articles' dates for him do not agree. Richard Brady, another bishop of Kilmore, died in 1607.[4][15]

The O'Grady Bradys

Not every Brady is a Cavan MacBrady. Woulfe records that in the 16th century the O'Gradys of Clare, a Dalcassian family settled around Tomgraney, were for some reason often written O'Brady or Brady. He names Hugh Brady, the first Protestant bishop of Meath, as a son of Sir Donogh O'Grady. Wikipedia gives Hugh's birthplace as Dunboyne in Meath, so the sources do not agree. Hugh's great-grandson was the poet and hymn writer Nicholas Brady of Bandon, Co. Cork.[2][12][16]

Poets, soldiers and emigrants

In the 18th century Fiachra Mac Brádaigh, of the old Breifne family, became a Gaelic poet, scribe and hedge-school teacher who settled in Co. Galway. Other Bradys served abroad. Thomas Brady, born in Cavan in the early 1750s, rose to the rank of Feldzeugmeister, a general, in the Austrian army, and in 1766 an Irish herald allowed arms to James Bernard Mac Brady, a count of the Holy Roman Empire. In the 19th century Mathew Brady became one of the best-known American photographers of the Civil War.[17][18][11][19]

Places linked to the name

  • Stradone, Co. Cavan — Village at the centre of Cúil Bhríde, the territory of the Mac Brádaigh chiefs.[1][10]
  • Loughtee Upper, Co. Cavan — Barony where the MacBradys were clerics and freeholders under the O'Reillys.[10]
  • Kilmore (An Chill Mhór), Co. Cavan — Church made the cathedral of the diocese in 1454 by Bishop Aindrias Mac Brádaigh.[15]
  • Toneymore, Co. Cavan — Seat of the MacBradys recorded by Burke as formerly barons of Loughtee.[11]

Everyday lives

The Bradys in the census

Who the Bradys were in the 1901 and 1911 censuses (and 1926 where recorded), set against everyone in Ireland in the same census.

Bradys All of Ireland Ireland's figure marked on the Brady bar

Religion, 1911

Catholic +21.5 points vs Ireland
Bradys 95.1%
All of Ireland 73.6%
Church of Ireland −10.1 points vs Ireland
Bradys 3.1%
All of Ireland 13.2%
Presbyterian −8.6 points vs Ireland
Bradys 1.5%
All of Ireland 10.1%
Methodist & other −2.8 points vs Ireland
Bradys 0.3%
All of Ireland 3.1%

Irish language

Spoke Irish, 1901 −9.8 points vs Ireland
Bradys 5.5%
All of Ireland 15.3%
Spoke Irish, 1911 −8.3 points vs Ireland
Bradys 5.2%
All of Ireland 13.5%
Spoke Irish, 1926 · 26 counties −4.6 points vs Ireland
Bradys 8.9%
All of Ireland 13.5%

14 Bradys spoke Irish only in 1901.

Reading & writing

Could read and write, 1901 · aged 15+ +1.2 points vs Ireland
Bradys 81.6%
All of Ireland 80.4%
Could read and write, 1911 · aged 15+ about the same as Ireland
Bradys 86.2%
All of Ireland 85.8%

Family life, 1911

Household size · 2,345 households lower than Ireland
Bradys 4.48
All of Ireland 4.83
Children born per mother · women 45–59 about the same as Ireland
Bradys 6.44
All of Ireland 6.46
Children still living about the same as Ireland
Bradys 79.7%
All of Ireland 79.8%

Commonest occupations

Adults aged 15+, 1901 and 1911 combined.

Farmer2,431
Farmer's son1,116
Farmer's daughter550
General labourer338
Agricultural labourer319
Labourer280
Farm servant275
House keeper254
Farm labourer196
Domestic servant178

Born outside Ireland

1.6% of Bradys in 1911 gave a birthplace outside Ireland.

England87
Scotland46
United States31
Australia & NZ3
India2
Wales1

Median age: 25 in 1901, 26 in 1911.

Given names

First names among the Bradys

Men and boys

  1. John1,979
  2. Patrick1,957
  3. James1,657
  4. Thomas1,228
  5. Michael1,009
  6. Peter542
  7. William442
  8. Edward432
  9. Bernard426
  10. Philip334

Women and girls

  1. Mary2,270
  2. Bridget1,142
  3. Margaret670
  4. Annie607
  5. Kate604
  6. Catherine587
  7. Anne565
  8. Ellen551
  9. Elizabeth448
  10. Maggie414

All three censuses combined. Top five in 1926: Patrick, John, James, Thomas, Michael; Mary, Bridget, Annie, Margaret, Elizabeth.

Spellings

Spellings

This page combines the spellings below, which census enumerators and families used for the same name.

Spelling190119111926Records
Brady10,69710,7499,122Search

Related forms

  • MacBrady, McBrady — The full form with the Mac prefix; Woulfe records early spellings such as M'Brady and M'Bradie.[1][11]
  • O'Brady — From the rare Ó Brádaigh, and also a 16th-century form of O'Grady in Clare.[5][2]
  • Mag Bhrádaigh — Woulfe cross-refers the aspirated form Mac Bhrádaigh (written M'Vraddie) to this spelling.[20]
  • Bradish — Wiktionary gives it as an alternative form of the Irish surname Brady.[9]

Diaspora

The Bradys abroad

Emigration carried the name worldwide. In the 2010 United States census:

SpellingPeopleUS rank
Brady73,145450th

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 surname file (public domain).

Heraldry

Is there a Brady coat of arms?

Arms were granted to particular families, so there is no single Brady crest. Burke records for MacBrady of Toneymore, Co. Cavan, a black shield showing a hand at the lower left pointing to a gold sun in splendour at the upper right. The same arms were allowed in 1766 to James Bernard Mac Brady, count of the Holy Roman Empire, with a cherub crest and the motto 'Claritate dextra'. Burke also records separate arms for Hugh Brady, bishop of Meath, and for Sir Maziere Brady.[11]

Websites selling a single “Brady family crest” are selling a design, not an inheritance. Arms in Ireland belonged to individuals and their heirs, and the Chief Herald of Ireland still grants arms that way today.

People

Notable people named Brady

  • Hugh Brady (died 1585)
    Bishop of Meath from 1563, the first Protestant holder of the see.
  • Nicholas Brady (1659–1726)
    Bandon-born Anglican clergyman and poet, great-grandson of Bishop Hugh Brady.
  • Fiachra Mac Brádaigh (c. 1690–c. 1760)
    Gaelic poet, scribe and hedge-school teacher of the Breifne family, buried in Co. Galway.
  • Thomas Brady (c. 1752–1827)
    Cavan-born general (Feldzeugmeister) in the Austrian imperial army.
  • Sir Maziere Brady (1796–1871)
    Judge who served an unusually long tenure as Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
  • Mathew Brady (c. 1822–1896)
    American photographer famous for his images of the American Civil War.
  • Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (1932–2013)
    Republican leader; president of Sinn Féin 1970–1983 and later of Republican Sinn Féin.
  • Seán Brady (born 1939)
    Cavan-born cardinal, Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, 1996–2014.
  • Paul Brady (born 1947)
    Singer-songwriter from Strabane whose work spans traditional folk and pop.
  • Conor Brady (born 1949)
    Journalist and novelist, editor of The Irish Times from 1986 to 2002.
  • Liam Brady (born 1956)
    Midfielder for Arsenal and Juventus, capped 72 times by the Republic of Ireland.
  • Tom Brady (born 1977)
    American football quarterback who played 23 NFL seasons, 20 of them with New England.

Questions

Questions about the Brady name

Is Brady an Irish surname?

Yes. In Ireland Brady is almost always the English form of Mac Brádaigh, the name of a leading family of Breifne in Co. Cavan, chiefs of the country around Stradone. A smaller number of Bradys in Clare and Limerick descend from O'Gradys who took the name in the 16th century. In England there is also an unrelated English surname Brady.[1][2][9]

What is Brady in Irish?

Mac Brádaigh, 'son of Brádach'. The rarer Ó Brádaigh, 'descendant of Brádach', is also found, and Woulfe thought it was probably a variant of the same name. Both are matched with Brady in the Gaois surname dataset, and Woulfe records early English spellings of the Mac form such as M'Brady and M'Bradie.[1][5][3]

What does the name Brady mean?

The surname means son or descendant of a man called Brádach. Woulfe and Wikipedia gloss Brádach as 'spirited', and Wikipedia's surname article also offers 'broad'. As with most Irish surnames, the meaning belongs to the ancestor's personal name, not to the family.[1][4][8]

How do you pronounce Brady?

In English it is 'BRAY-dee', IPA /ˈbɹeɪdi/. The Irish form Ó Brádaigh is pronounced roughly 'oh BRAW-dee', with a long 'aw' in the stressed syllable; Wikipedia gives the IPA [oː ˈbˠɾˠaːd̪ˠiː] for Ruairí Ó Brádaigh's surname. The accent on the á marks that long vowel.[9][6]

Are Brady and O'Grady related?

Usually not, but there is a link. O'Grady is Ó Grádaigh, a Dalcassian family of Clare, while most Bradys are Mac Brádaigh of Cavan. Woulfe records that in the 16th century some O'Gradys came to be called O'Brady or Brady, and he names Hugh Brady, bishop of Meath, as a son of Sir Donogh O'Grady, though Wikipedia places Hugh's birth at Dunboyne.[2][4][12]

Is there a Brady family crest or coat of arms?

Not one for every Brady. Burke records arms for the MacBradys of Toneymore, Co. Cavan: a hand pointing to a gold sun on a black shield. These were allowed in 1766 to James Bernard Mac Brady, a count of the Holy Roman Empire, with the motto 'Claritate dextra'. Other Brady families had different arms.[11]

Where in Ireland is the Brady surname most common?

In the 1911 census the largest numbers of Bradys lived in Cavan (3,421), Dublin (1,819), Longford (657). Relative to population, the name was most concentrated in Cavan (375 per 10,000), Longford (150 per 10,000), Meath (90 per 10,000).

How common was the Brady surname in Ireland?

10,749 people were recorded as Brady in the 1911 census of Ireland, making it the 54th most common surname. That is roughly 0.2% of the population, or 1 person in 408.

Looking for a Brady ancestor?

Search every Brady household in the 1901, 1911 and 1926 censuses, with free images of the original forms.

Search records on irishcensus.com

Evidence

Sources

  1. Patrick Woulfe, Mac Brádaigh, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  2. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Gráda, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  3. Gaois research group, Dublin City University, Sloinnte: Irish surname dataset (version 2) (2022)
  4. Wikipedia, Mac Brádaigh (2026)
  5. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Brádaigh, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  6. Wikipedia, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (2026)
  7. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Bradacáin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  8. Wikipedia, Brady (surname) (2026)
  9. Wiktionary contributors, Brady (2026)
  10. Wikipedia, Loughtee Upper (2026)
  11. Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884). Entries 'Mac Brady' (Toneymore, and the 1766 grant to James Bernard Mac Brady) and the Brady entries for Bishop Hugh Brady and Sir Maziere Brady.
  12. Wikipedia, Hugh Brady (bishop) (2026)
  13. Wikipedia, Kingdom of Breifne (2026)
  14. Wikipedia, East Breifne (2026)
  15. Wikipedia, Roman Catholic Diocese of Kilmore (2026)
  16. Wikipedia, Nicholas Brady (poet) (2026)
  17. Wikipedia, Fiachra Mac Brádaigh (2026)
  18. Wikipedia, Thomas Brady (general) (2026)
  19. Wikipedia, Mathew Brady (2026)
  20. Patrick Woulfe, Mac Bhrádaigh, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  21. Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911, and Census of Population 1926, National Archives of Ireland. Counts compiled by surnames.ie from the irishcensus.com transcription (dataset 20260831130351). 1926 data © National Archives of Ireland, CC BY 4.0.

How we compile these figures: methodology.