Fitzsimons (also spelled FitzSimons, Fitzsimmons or FitzSimmons) is a surname of
Norman origin common in both
Ireland and
England. The name is a variant of "Sigmundsson", meaning son of
Sigmund.[1] The
Gaelicisation of this surname is Mac Síomóin or Mac an Ridire.[2][3]
The name "FitzSymons" and its pre-standardization variants (Fitzsimons, Fitzsimmons, Fitz-Simons, etc.) is not a sept, or clan, name, but rather an individual patronymic passed down through various, yet discrete, colonial families arriving at different times in Irish history. Some families "went native" during the Gaelic revival of the 14th and 15th centuries, and many refused to endorse the Protestant Reformation. Others became important members of the Protestant Ascendancy and its supporting
mittelstand. Two distinct families can be identified: those who arrived when the surname was first recorded in Ireland in 1177, attached to an adventurer seeking swordlands in Ulster, known as Sir
John de Courcy of
Carrickfergus Castle, earl of Ulster. These Fitzsimons are now native to the east-central seaboard of Ulster, in Lecale, Ards and
Down.
In 1323, a junior member of the Fitzsymons' of Simonshide,
Herefordshire, settled in Dublin. This family is thought to be distinct from the Ulster Fitzsimons. Settling in Dublin, and the north and south reaches of Dublin County, they expanded into Meath, Westmeath, King's and Queen's County of the central English Pale. This branch may have been the root of the Wexford Fitzsimons family which produced a
Signer of the Declaration of Independence (or the Wexford family may have sprung from a Norman adventurer arriving with
Strongbow). Of the Pale Fitzsimons, it is thought discrete branches settled at
Tullynally, County Meath, the line of
Sir William Johnson and 'went' native by intermarrying with the O'Reillys and MacMahons of south central Ulster. These are generally the families now with ties to
County Cavan and
County Longford.
The English family which sent its youngest son to Dublin in 1323 died out in the name, only the Irish branch now survives. The name "Fitzsimons" is quite common in England itself. These originating in
Norfolk,
Lincolnshire and
Nottinghamshire are thought to be
Scandinavian and of the genere Danus, as the area was settled by
DanishVikings and predate the
Norman invasion in 1066 AD.[citation needed]
This page lists people with the
surnameFitzsimons. If an
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