Gilbride Name Meaning, Origin and Heraldry

Heraldry is personal: arms associated with the McBride surname were borne by specific families, and sharing the name does not mean sharing the blazon.

Family name meaning

A Gilbride ancestor may well appear as McBride in earlier records. Its meaning, shared with McBride, is “Son of the devotee of Saint Brigid”.

Before spelling was fixed, McBride was also written Gilbride. Spellings drifted because names were written down by ear in parish books, tax rolls and passenger lists. You may also find the name written MacBride and McBryde. The Census Bureau's 2010 surname file lists Gilbride with 1,079 bearers, at rank 23,532. It sits within the 25,000 most common last names in the country.

For the full story, order the Gilbride surname pack.