From Ó Broin, descendants of Bran (‘raven’) — the Leinster kings driven into the Wicklow mountains by the Normans.
Gaelic Origin · Root name Bran, ‘raven’
Byrne comes from Bran, an old personal name meaning ‘raven’. The Ó Broin were kings of Uí Fáeláin in Leinster until the Norman invasion pushed them into the Wicklow mountains, from where they harried the English-held Pale for four centuries.
A name that answered conquest not with surrender but with a mountain stronghold — the Byrnes of Wicklow never truly stopped being kings.
Irish form: Ó Broin
