Origin of the Name McBride
The
McBride family history was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives.
Over the centuries Surnames developed a wide number of variants. Different spellings of the same name can be traced back to an original root. Additionally when a bearer of a name emigrated it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books at their new location. Surnames were also often altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another.
Variants of the name McBride include Kilbride, McBryde and McBraid. McBride is Mac Giolla Brighde in Irish, meaning 'son of the follower of Saint Brigid'. They are first recorded as erenaghs of Raymunterdoney, County Donegal, a Parish which includes Tory Island. In the seventeenth century they settled at Gweedore in the same County. The most distinguished of the sept was John MacGilbride, a Bishop of Raphoe in 1440. A branch of these settled in County Down in 1659. Although most of the Irish McBrides are from Southern Ireland many of the most prominent of the name are from Ulster. In Connaught the variant name Kilbride is often found.
The McBride coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all McBride descendants.