Delaney is an Irish surname from County Laois. It is the English form of the Gaelic Ó Dubhshláine, “descendant of Dubhshláine,” a name that joins dubh, black, to Sláine, the River Slaney, and the family behind it were chiefs of Coill Uachtarach, the upper wood at the foot of Slieve Bloom. Every Delaney design is gathered in our Delaney Irish family gifts collection.
Quick answer: Delaney and Delany come from Ó Dubhshláine, which Rev. Patrick Woulfe translates as “Black of the Slaney.” The family was numerous in Leix, now County Laois, and formerly held the chiefship of Coill Uachtarach, today the barony of Upperwoods in the northwest of the county. Woulfe records the older English forms O Dowlaney and O Dulany beside Delaney, Delany, Deleany and Laney. The Olympic gold in this article’s title belongs to Ronnie Delany, 1500 m champion at Melbourne in 1956. Delaney is also found as an English surname of Norman origin.
What Does the Delaney Surname Mean?
The Irish surname is Ó Dubhshláine, also written Ó Dubhshláinge. In his Irish Names and Surnames, Woulfe explains it as “descendant of Dubhshláine” or “Dubhshláinge” and glosses the personal name as “Black of the Slaney.” The first element is dubh, black or dark; the second is Sláine, the Irish name of the River Slaney in Leinster.
Woulfe’s list of English forms shows how the name moved from Irish into the records: O Dowlaney and O Dulany first, then Delaney, Delany, Deleany and Laney. Delaney and Delany are equally correct and come from the same Irish form. The O’ prefix in older forms means “descendant of”; the woven blanket in our range displays the Delaney spelling.
Where Did the Delaney Family Come From?
Woulfe calls Ó Dubhshláine “the name of a numerous family in Leix, who were formerly chiefs of Coill Uachtarach, now Upperwoods, at the foot of Slieve Bloom.” The place is still on the map. On logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland, An Choill Uachtarach, “the upper wood,” is a barony of County Laois. Its earliest listed form, “ón Choill Uachtoraigh,” comes from the Topographical Poems of about 1400, and a document of 1581 calls it “the Upp. woods.”
Upperwoods lies in northwest Laois, bounded on that side by the Slieve Bloom Mountains. Logainm notes that the barony was historically part of Upper Ossory, the English name for three baronies of southwest Laois that took their title from the ancient territory of Osraí. The family’s lands lay in these Laois uplands, well away from the Slaney whose name their ancestor carried.
The name stayed rooted in the district. Daniel Dulany was born in Upperwoods in 1685 and left Queen’s County for Maryland in 1703, and in 1788 the Laois-born Daniel Delany became bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. A shared surname does not make every Delaney a descendant of the Upperwoods chiefs, but Laois is where the Irish name is rooted.
Is Delaney Always an Irish Name?
No. In Ireland it stands for Ó Dubhshláine, but Delaney is also an English surname of Norman origin, meaning “of the alder grove,” a separate line with no connection to the Laois family. A family’s own parish, townland and emigration records settle which story is theirs.
Watch the spellings when you search. Woulfe’s list runs O Dowlaney, O Dulany, Delaney, Delany, Deleany and Laney, and the Maryland branch of Daniel Dulany kept the Dulany form. Delany is the spelling carried by an eighteenth-century dean, a bishop and an Olympic champion; Delaney is the spelling on every piece in our range.
Who Was Ronnie Delany?
Ronald Michael Delany was born in Arklow, County Wicklow, on 6 March 1935. He won a scholarship to Villanova University, where he was coached by Jumbo Elliott, and in 1956 he joined the small group of runners who had broken four minutes for the mile, clocking 3:59.0. At the Melbourne Olympics that year he won the 1500 metres with a devastating finishing kick, setting an Olympic record of 3:41.2 at the age of 21. He was the first Irishman to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics since Bob Tisdall and Pat O’Callaghan in 1932.
Delany added a bronze in the 1500 metres at the 1958 European Championships in Stockholm and ran for Ireland again at the Rome Olympics in 1960. He died on 11 March 2026 at the age of 91, as World Athletics reported. He was a Wicklow man who spelled the name Delany, without the extra e, and his medal is a point of pride for everyone who carries the name.
How Can I Research Delaney Family History?
- IrishGenealogy.ie: free state records of births, marriages and deaths, plus a growing set of church registers.
- National Archives 1901 and 1911 census: compare Delaney and Delany households in Laois with those across the county boundaries in Offaly and Kilkenny.
- Griffith’s Valuation: the mid-nineteenth-century land survey, which ties a tenant to a townland in Upperwoods or anywhere else in Queen’s County.
- National Library of Ireland parish registers: Catholic baptisms and marriages for the Laois parishes, many from before state registration.
- logainm.ie: the barony of Upperwoods, its townlands and their older spellings.
Search every form Woulfe lists, especially Delany, Dulany and Dowlaney, and remember that Laois appears as Queen’s County in older records.
Notable Irish Bearers of the Delaney Name
- Patrick Delany (c. 1685–1768), born at Rathcrea in Queen’s County, a senior fellow of Trinity College Dublin and dean of Down from 1744. Jonathan Swift was a visitor to his house at Delville in Glasnevin, and in 1743 he married Mary Pendarves, née Granville.
- Daniel Dulany the Elder (1685–1753), born in Upperwoods, who reached Maryland in 1703 as an indentured servant and rose to the colony’s General Assembly and Governor’s Council.
- Daniel Delany (1747–1814), born at Paddock near Mountrath, bishop of Kildare and Leighlin from 1788, who refounded the Brigidine Sisters in 1807 and founded the Patrician Brothers at Tullow, County Carlow, in 1808.
- William Delany (1835–1924), Jesuit priest and president of University College Dublin.
- Ronnie Delany (1935–2026), born in Arklow, Olympic 1500 m champion at Melbourne in 1956.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Delaney Name
What is Delaney in Irish?
Ó Dubhshláine, “descendant of Dubhshláine,” the personal name that Woulfe translates as “Black of the Slaney.”
Which county is the Delaney family from?
County Laois. The family were chiefs of Coill Uachtarach, now the barony of Upperwoods, at the foot of Slieve Bloom in the northwest of the county.
Are Delaney and Delany the same name?
Yes. Both are English forms of Ó Dubhshláine. Delany is the spelling of the eighteenth-century dean, of Bishop Daniel Delany and of Ronnie Delany.
Is Delaney connected to the River Slaney?
Through its meaning, yes. The personal name Dubhshláine means “Black of the Slaney,” but the family’s own territory lay at Slieve Bloom in Laois, not on the river.
Was Ronnie Delany from Laois?
No. He was born in Arklow, County Wicklow, in 1935 and trained at Villanova in the United States. He shares the surname of the Laois family.
Take the upper wood of Slieve Bloom home with the Delaney crest woven or printed over the Irish National Tartan, from the fringed cotton blanket to the wall pennant, in our Delaney Irish family gifts collection.