These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
Cill Mhantáin· Irish · main form · validated name
Wicklow· English · main form
Place & story
Mountains and the sea
Lewis’s 1837 county description places Wicklow between Dublin, Kildare, Carlow and Wexford, with the sea to the east. Its historical account distinguishes mountain territories from coastal lands more readily reached from outside. That contrast helps explain routes, settlements and conflicts without assuming an absolute separation between communities. A valley crossing, upland home and harbour address can imply very different local connections even when all are described simply as Wicklow.[2]
Names of earlier districts
The directory records Ranelagh and Imale in its account of the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles and describes the region’s earlier inclusion within the wider Dublin jurisdiction. Those territorial labels should be preserved when an old source uses them, but not treated as exact substitutes for later parishes. The history of the ruling families is also different from personal genealogy: a shared surname or residence in their former territory cannot establish descent from a named chief.[2]
Coastal towns across local boundaries
The Bray entry places parts of that community on opposite sides of the Dargle and the historical Dublin–Wicklow boundary. Wicklow town itself lay across parts of Rathnew and Kilpoole parishes beside the Vartry outlet and the Murragh. These examples make precise locality valuable for family research. Keep the river bank, townland, parish and date, and distinguish a town from the county sharing its name. Older Scandinavian name conjectures in the directory require independent linguistic evidence before a full-name meaning is asserted.[3][4]
Figures cover the whole county including its cities. CSO recommends this series for long-term comparison, although minor boundary changes have occurred.
View population figures
County Wicklow, including its cities — census population
placenames