From Ó Foghladha, a Waterford and Cork name whose meaning is genuinely unsettled, sometimes read as ‘plunderer, raider’.
Gaelic Origin · Root meaning disputed
Foley's root, foghlaí, is most often glossed as ‘plunderer’ or ‘raider’, though like several names on this list that reading isn't fully settled and is worth stating plainly rather than smoothing over. The Ó Foghladha held ground in Waterford and east Cork, within the old Déise territory.
A name unafraid of its own rougher reading — Foley never traded an honest, disputed meaning for a tidier invented one.
Irish form: Ó Foghladha
