From Ó Súilleabháin, ‘little dark-eyed one’ — a Munster name pushed to Ireland's southwest after 1169.
The O’Sullivan certificate.
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Gaelic Origin · Root meaning ‘one-eyed’ or ‘dark-eyed’
Súilleabháin is built from súil (‘eye’) with dubh (‘dark’), most often read as ‘little dark-eyed one’, though ‘one-eyed’ is also proposed. Originally a Tipperary sept, the O'Sullivans were driven west into Cork and Kerry after the Norman invasion and became one of Munster's great Gaelic families.
A name that turned displacement into a new homeland — the O'Sullivans remade themselves in Kerry as thoroughly as they'd once ruled in Tipperary.
Irish form: Ó Súilleabháin
