Usually the English status-name ‘the king’, from pageant roles or royal service — though in a few Gaelic families it also translates a local name for a chieftain's kin.
Mixed Origin · Root meaning ‘king’
King is most often an English nickname or status-name — sometimes earned playing ‘the king’ in a mummers' pageant, sometimes from service in a royal household — brought to Ireland by settlers. In a small number of Gaelic families, it was also used to translate a local name associated with chieftainly kin, rather than a single settled sept.
A grand-sounding name for what was usually a fairly ordinary trade or turn of phrase — worth saying plainly rather than dressing it up as a lost crown.
Irish form: (no single Gaelic form)
