Carmody Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Carmody Family History

Carmody Family History

The Carmody ancient family history was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. Variants of the Irish name Carmody include Carmoady, Kermode and Carmady. This name is serived from the Gaelic O'Cearmada sept that was located in the eastern part of County Clare as well as in Counties Kerry and Limerick.

A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. It is also the case that many Irish septs or clans that are related often belong to a larger groups, sometimes called tribes. For example the 'Tribes of Galway' consisted of fourteen distinct families. The 'Tribes of Kilkenny' were ten families, etc.

When Gaelic names were anglicized during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they were often changed to Anglo equivalents that sounded most like their original Gaelic name. In modern times bearers of this name are still located in the original homeland Counties. In records from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin the name has been recorded as Kermode. The Carmody family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Carmody descendants.