Kinsella


Kinsella is a surname of Irish origin, developed from the original form Cinnsealach, meaning "proud". The Kinsella sept is native in part of the modern County Wexford in Leinster, a district formerly called the Kinsellaghs. The oldest documentary mention of the surname appears in the Ancient Records of Leinster, dated to 1170, where the son of the King of Leinster is named as Enna Cinsealach. Originally pronounced, it is also often found pronounced . This surname is most often found in Ireland, Northern Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
According to historian C. Thomas Cairney, the Kinsellas were one of the chiefly families of the Uí Ceinnselaig who in turn were a tribe from the Dumnonii or Laigin who were the third wave of Celts to settle in Ireland during the first century BC. The Kinsellas as one of the chiefly families of the Uí Ceinnselaig is supported by John O'Hart in his 1892 Irish Pedigrees; or, The Origin and Stem of The Irish Nation who gives the spelling as Kinselagh.

People with this surname

Fictional people

  • Ray Kinsella, a character in the film Field of Dreams. Also, the fictional protagonist in J.D. Salinger's short story "A Young Girl in 1941 With No Waist at All."

Spelling variations

  • Kinch
  • Kinchella
  • Kincheloe
  • Kinchley
  • Kinchsular
  • Kingslagh
  • Kingslaghe
  • Kingsley
  • Kinsela
  • Kinsella
  • Kinshellagh
  • Kinshlagh
  • Kinslayer
  • Kinsler
  • Kynsellagh
  • Kynsellaghe
  • O'Kinsella
  • O'Cinnseallaigh
  • Kinsley