The Blake surname in Ireland originates with the Norman family known as de Bláca or le Bláca, who arrived in Connacht following the Anglo-Norman invasion of the late twelfth century. The name derives from the Old English blaec or blac, meaning black — most probably a reference to dark hair or complexion in the original Norman-Welsh family. The anglicised form Blake has been the standard spelling since at least the fourteenth century, and it is in County Galway that the family's Irish story is most fully written.
Who Were the Fourteen Tribes of Galway?
The Blakes are numbered among the Fourteen Tribes of Galway, the merchant and landowning families who controlled the commerce, governance, and social life of Galway city from the medieval period through to the seventeenth century. This was an extraordinary civic institution — a closed mercantile oligarchy in which the same surnames, Blake among the foremost, rotated through the mayoralty and the offices of civic power for generations. The other Tribes included the Brownes, the Lynches, the Martins, and the Kirwans, names that remain associated with Connacht to this day. Galway under the Tribes was one of the principal ports of the medieval Atlantic, trading with Spain, France, and the wine-producing regions of Europe, and the Blakes were central figures in that commerce.
The Kirwan family, fellow members of the Fourteen Tribes, shared the same civic world as the Blakes and offer a useful parallel for understanding the Norman-Irish merchant aristocracy of medieval Galway.
What Does the Blake Name Mean?
The derivation from blaec or blac — Old English for black — places Blake in a category of Norman surnames that carried a physical or descriptive attribute rather than a territorial or patronymic origin. Norman families arriving in Ireland often brought surnames already formed in England or Wales, and Blake appears to have been among these: a family already identified by a distinguishing colour reference before they reached the west of Ireland. The same root gives rise to the English surname Blake more broadly, though in Ireland the name carries a specifically Connacht identity that distinguishes it from its English counterpart.
Who Were the Notable Blakes of History?
Robert Blake, born in 1598 in Bridgwater, Somerset — though from a family with Irish connections — became one of the greatest naval commanders of the seventeenth century, serving the English Commonwealth against both royalist and foreign fleets. His victories over the Dutch and Spanish established him as a founding figure of British naval power. Within the Galway tradition, Richard Blake served as Mayor of Galway in the medieval period, representing the family's long tenure at the centre of Connacht civic life. The Blakes of Galway also produced significant ecclesiastical figures, with members of the family appearing in the records of the Irish Catholic Church during the Counter-Reformation period, when many Tribe families maintained their faith under Protestant establishment pressure.
How Did the Blakes Fare Through Plantation and Penal Times?
The Cromwellian settlement of the 1650s was devastating for the Tribes of Galway. Catholic merchant families who had dominated the city were dispossessed, and many Blakes lost their town properties and commercial holdings as new Protestant settlers were installed. The city of Galway itself was besieged and taken by Cromwellian forces in 1652, ending the era of Tribal governance that had defined the city for three centuries. Some Blakes, like other Catholic gentry families of Connacht, continued to hold land through the eighteenth century under the Penal Laws, often through complex legal arrangements, while others emigrated to France and Spain as part of the broader movement of the Wild Geese.
The Famine years of the 1840s brought fresh disruption to Connacht. County Galway was among the most severely affected provinces, and families across the region emigrated in large numbers. Blake families were part of this movement, with descendants establishing themselves in the United States, Canada, and Australia in the mid-nineteenth century.
Where Are Blakes Found Today?
The surname remains concentrated in Connacht, particularly in County Galway, where the name has been recorded continuously since the thirteenth century. In the broader diaspora, Blake is found across the English-speaking world, with significant concentrations in the United States and Canada among families of Irish descent. The name is also common in England, where its Norman and Anglo-Irish threads have been present since the medieval period.
If you carry the Blake name, you can use the search bar above to explore heritage gifts connected to your family name, or browse the Blake collection at Celtic Ancestry Gifts.
Those researching the broader Connacht and Norman-Irish tradition may find the Burke family history a natural companion — the Burkes were the great Norman power in Connacht and shaped the world in which the Tribes of Galway operated.
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