Origin of the Name Friel
The origin of the name
Friel was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. The names Friel, O'Friel and Freel all originated in County Donegal in the North-West of Ireland . In Irish these names are O'Firghil, which in turn is taken from the first name 'Feargal'. The sept has a distinguished origin, being descended from Eoghan, brother of Saint Columcille.
A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. Irish septs and clans that are related often belong to even larger groups, sometimes called tribes.
The leading family were hereditary coarbs of Kilmacrenan in County Donegal. The chief of the name possessed the hereditary right of inaugurating O'Donnell as Lord of Tirconnell. In modern times the bearers of the name Friel and its variants are mostly found in County Dublin as well as in the original ancestral County Donegal homeland of the sept.
The Friel 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 Friel descendants.