Contracted from Mac Cealiaigh, 'Ceallach’s Son' (ceallach, 'war, strife’).

Death of Ceallach, son of Maelcobba in the Brugh, A.d. 654.' ‘Ceallach, Joint Monarch of Ireland, died a.d. 656.' The name is as common in the Isle of Man as it is in Ireland. Connell Mageoghan, who translated the Annals of Clonmacnoise, in 1627, gives the following account of the O’Kellys, under a.d. 778: ‘Though the O’Kellys are so common everywhere that it is unknown whether the dispersed parties in Ireland of them be of the families of O’Kelly, of Connaught, or Brey, ... so as scarce there is a few parishes in the Kingdom, but hath some one or other of these Kellys'.

Normally the surname Kelly comes from the Gaelic O’Ceallaigh. Apart from this fact the origins of the name Kelly-at least in Ireland, where it is most numerous-are obscure. One possible derivation is from the Gaelic word ‘ceallach’ which means ‘conflict, strife or war’. If this is so, Kelly would be a nickname, the original Kelly probably achieving renown as a great fighter.

Kellys are found all over Ireland-and indeed, with emigration, all over the world. (From Boston and New York to Sydney, the local telephone directories have pages of Kellys.) The main family clan of the Kellys is native to mid-Galway and south Roscommon, but other separate family clans have their origins in Leix, Wicklow, Meath and Derry.

Kellys also come from the Isle of Man and Scotland-but almost all of these are due to early emigration. Exceptions are rare, but nonetheless these do exist. In Scotland the name Kelly is sometimes a place name, being given to natives of the town of Kelly in Angus and to those from the village of Killie in Fife. These places get their names from the Scots Gaelic or the Cornish words for ‘woods’. It is also just possible that the Irish Kellys-at least in part-derive their name from a similar source in Irish Gaelic. In this case the Irish name could also be a place name, rather than the more heroic nickname. Kelly is also an old surname in Devon. In the Pipe Rolls for Devon in 1194 one Warin de Kelly is listed, named after the Devon village, and this is the first note of a Kelly in English records.

In 1888 James Kelly, the Liverpool wife-murderer, escaped from Broadmoor, the celebrated top-security prison for mental patients in Berkshire. He did so by making a passkey from a corset spring. After his escape he lived in Paris, then in New York for many years, eluding all attempts to recapture him. Finally, he returned in 1928 to the gates of Broadmoor and asked for readmission. This was granted, and he died an inmate in 1930. No one else has ever escaped and remained free from Broadmoor for anything approaching this period.

Helen Adams Keller (1880—1968) became blind, deaf and dumb as a baby. By sheer persistence and with the devoted help of Anne Sullivan, she overcame these overwhelming handicaps to graduate cum laude from Radcliffe College, Cambridge (US). She became an inspiration to many similarly handicapped, and her autobiography, The Story of My Life (1902), remains widely read.

The sixteenth-century alchemist’s assistant, Edward Kelley, claimed that he could confer with the angels by use of the magic crystals belonging to his master, John Dee. Kelley eventually persuaded his master to adopt a community of wives.

HMS Kelly was the first command of Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900—79). Later to become Viceroy of India, Earl Mountbatten earned the undying respect of his men as a result of his bravery at the time of the engagement during which HMS Kelly was finally sunk. He knew the name of every man on board, and refused rescue before his wounded shipmates had been assisted.

The first full-length film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was made in Australia in 1906.

The United Kingdom has towns called Kelly and Kelly Bay. Other countries with name-related towns include Australia (Kelly), the US (3 Kellys), South Africa (Kelly’s View) and Ireland (Kelly’s Grove). There are Kelly rivers in Alaska and Australia and Kelly lakes in Angola and Canada, as well as Kelly Hills in Australia.

With about 58,000 namesakes Kelly is the 2nd most popular surname in Ireland. There are over 16,000 Kellys in Scotland where it is 40th in popularity. (The name is not common enough throughout England and Wales to be counted separately.) Around the world Kellys are most common in Canberra (one in 354 families), Sydney (one in 593) and Ottawa (one in 637). The United States has more Kellys than the entire population of Hull-an estimated total of just under 275,000 makes this their 61st most popular surname.