Moriarty (name)


Moriarty is an Irish surname originating in County Kerry. It represents an anglicisation of Ó Muircheartaigh, meaning "descendant of Muircheartach". The latter is a personal name meaning "skilled navigator".
Using documentary evidence, flavoured by legend, researchers have isolated historical data using books by O'Hart, McLysaght and O'Brien, the Four Masters, baptismals, parish records, and ancient land grants. Despite the loss of records caused by the fire in the Dublin Records Office in 1922 which was an irreparable disaster to Irish historians, sufficient evidence is still available to produce a thumbnail sketch of the Moriarty history.
Conclusions by these researchers show that the family name Moriarty was first found in County Kerry.
Spelling variations of the names were found in the archives researched, particularly when families attempted to translate the name from the Gaelic to the English. Although the name Moriarty occurred in many references, from time to time the surname was also officially recorded as O'Moriarty, Murtagh, Murtag, Murtaugh, McMoriarty, O'Murtagh, and these changes in spelling frequently occurred, even between father and son. Preferences for different spelling variations usually arose from a division of the family, or for religious reasons, or sometimes patriotic reasons.

Migrants

In North America, some of the first migrants which could be considered kinsmen of the sept Moriarty of that same family were Daniel, Ellen, Eugene, Margaret, Michael, Thomas Moriarty, who all settled in Boston in 1849; and James, John, Martin, Maurice, and Michael Moriarty, who all arrived in Philadelphia between 1840 and 1860.
One Edward Moriarte died in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, c. 1688.
While a direct connection to Edward has not been made, a family with surnames Meratta, Muratta, Marattay, Maratty, and so forth migrated from Maryland to Pennsylvania before 1790, and members migrated to the Nelson County/Spencer County region of Kentucky about 1805.

People with the surname