The Penguin Book of Surnames (1978) says: "It should be pointed out of all these Fitz-surnames that they do not prove the founder's illegitimacy, although the prefix distinguishes recent royal bastards." Fitz means "son of", and as the bearers of these Norman names became hibernicised, the "fitz" became mac. Fitz Maurice thereby became Mac Muiris. (In the case of the surname Fitzpatrick the reverse happened. This is really Mac Giolla Phadraig, a Gaelic-Irish surname, where fitz was substituted for mac.)
As we plaintively remarked on another occasion, our set of the Ormond Deeds is missing Volume 1, so our earliest sighting of the surname Fitz Maurice herein is for the year 1351 when two persons so-named were granted land in le Corballi in Clonihalean "together with two weirs on the water which is called `le Ri' and one weir on the water which is called `le Nor' with a fishing in the said water of `le Ri' as far as Ballathye . . . " These waters were the River King (ri, king) and the River Nore. Corbally and Kells are in Co Kilkenny. Seventeen other Fitz Maurice references in the Ormond Deeds are to counties Laois, Tipperary, Galway, Kildare and Kerry, the last being in the year 1596.
This famous family of the Norman Geraldines was notable for its resistance to English invaders in the 16th century.
Indeed a great number of the approximately 100 fiants (15211603) concerning Fitz Morish/Morice/Morris/Mores/Moris/ Morishe/ Morrice/Morrish/Morrishe/Moryshe, and the over 60 relating to the Irish form of the name - Mac Muiris - under its various anglicised forms, dating from 1557 to 1603, are pardons. These were in counties Kildare, Limerick, Waterford, Cork and Kerry. Those in the latter county were lords of Lixnaw, and it was from then that the north Kerry barony of Clanmaurice (Clann Mhuiris), "the children/offspring of Maurice", got its name. A branch of the Prendergasts of Co Mayo adopted the name Fitzmaurice, giving name to the Mayo barony of Clanmorris.
"The English in Ireland - of all classes, except in the neighbourhood of Dublin, had adopted the Irish language, dress, and manners, and never appeared in English apparel, except when attending Parliament or the Lord Deputy's Court; and no sooner home thence (or from the Court of England), than off with their English apparel, and on with their brogues and saffron shirt, and kerne's coat, and other Irish attire," according to State Papers, Henry VIII (Ireland).
In 1576, Sir Henry Sidney reported to the Council in England that "the Earl of Clanricarde's sons (not without the manifest consent of their father) had stole accross the Shannon, and there cast away their English habit and apparel, and put on their wonted Irish weede". Besides "that herbaceous plant not valued for use or beauty"; "weed" meant "an article of apparel; a garment, clothing; raiment, dress, al. A scarf or band of crape worn by a mourner". One still, occasionally hears the term "widow's weeds". In 1586 it was reported that Patrick, the Baron of Lixnaw's eldest son, "notwithstanding he was trained up in the court of England was no sooner come home, but away with his English attires, and on with his brogs his shirt, and other Irish rags, being verie a traitor as the veriest knave of them all" (Holinshed's Chronicle of Ireland).
Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) lists a Fitzmaurice holding each in Cos Tyrone and Galway, as well as in five Munster counties - Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. The larger holdings were the 1,417 Co Cork acres at Dunmanway, and the 2,170 Kerry acres, in the hands of the representatives of O. Fitzmaurice, Dublin.
There are eight Fitzmaurice entries in the Northern Ireland telephone directory, while south of the Border there are 216 entries, 119 of which are in west Munster, west Connacht, and Donegal.
Necessary crossing of rivers in ancient times was popularly done at a shallow part of the river called ath, "a ford". This is represented by Ah-, and At-, naming approximately 200 townlands. Deeper places, where no bridge crossed, were perforce, negotiated by swimming. Such a place, in the Kerry parish of Kilcaragh, was Leic Snamha, "the flagstone of the swimming". This names a townland and a village.