IRELAND NAME RAY DEFINITION

(Mac) REA, Ray, MacCrea, Wray, Ray: It has already been mentioned in Irish Families (P. 165) that Rea is used as an abbreviation of MacRea, which has long been more often written MacCrea. This is the Scottish form of our Mac Raith, usually Mag Raith in Irish and anglicized in Ireland as MacCrath or Magrath. As the name Rea is now much more common in Antrim and Down than elsewhere in Ireland it is probable that most of our Reas are Scottish in origin. However, they are not newcomers, for the place-name Ballymacrea (bar. Dunlace, Co. Antrim) and an occasional mention in the Fiants (1600-1601) prove that they were established there before the Plantation of Ulster -- which in any case did not include Antrim and Down. At the same time it must be recalled that there were Ulster Plantation settlers called Rea in Co. Cavan.


Rea can also be an abbreviated for of Reagh (spelt also Reaugh, Reogh, Reigh etc., in medieval documents). This, like Roe, Bane, Begg etc., is an epithet (Riabhach i.e. swarthy or grizzled) which supersedes a surname. That being so it is only to be expected that it should be found in widely separated places, the greatest number being in the Kilkenny-Wexford area and in Co. Cork.


In Co. Cork and Co. Limerick we get O’Rea (with variants O’Ree, O’Ria, O’Reigh) frequently occurring in the Fiants of 1550-1600 and figuring as a principal Irish name in the barony of Owney, Co. Limerick in 1659. This is presumably Ó Ribhaigh, formed from the adjective riabhach referred to above. The Irish name Rea is sometimes phonetically written Ray.


The Rhea family in America, of whom Congressman John Rea (1753-1832) was the best known, came from Co. Donegal. Rheatown and Rhea County, Tennessee, are named after them.


Then again there is the surname Wray. This is occasionally, like Ray, used as a synonym of Rea, but in Ulster there is a well known family of Wray, with branches in counties Donegal, Derry and Antrim, who came from Yorkshire as Elizabethan settlers some time before the Plantation of Ulster was contemplated.


According to Reaney, Rae is a Scottish form of Roe. Ray (also written Rea) as an English name is formed from atte rea, i.e. at or near a stream. As Ray the name is on record in Ireland in 1392 when John Ray of Rayestown, Co. Meath, was a party to the transfer of land.


Thomas Matthew Ray (1801-1881), secretary to O’Connell’s Repeal Association, was born, lived and died in Dublin.



It has been suggested that the O’Rear’s were related to the MacCarthy family. This large and influential family had various divisions, most notable the Mor’s and the Reagh’s (pronounced Rea’s). But there is no obvious relationship between the O’Rea’s and this prosperous family. The records of the MacCarthy family are fairly well known in the 1600’s. While some members of the family did to go to France following Cromwell’s conquest, they kept the name MacCarthy and apparently did not use Reagh, let alone O’Rea.


A review of the 1659 census of Ireland appears to provide the most fruitful lead. It lists five members of the Ô Rea family in various townlands of the Duogh Parrish, of the Ownhy Barony of the county Tipperary.