Featured themes 29/12/2025

Saint Stephen’s Day and the many borrowed faces of Stephen
Clonmellon/Ráistín (logainm.ie #1413957)

Date: 29/12/2025

Returning from Belfast by bus the year before last, one of the writers of this note was engaged in conversation with a fellow traveller who referred to Saint Stephen’s Day as “Boxing Day”. The use of that term is something of a shibboleth in Ireland and grates on many an ear; but is Saint Stephen really that specific to native Irish – rather than simply Catholic – culture? If placenames are anything to go by, it seems not. Saint Stephen the Martyr, to whom Saint Stephen’s Day refers, was not considered important enough to feature in the native Irish calendar of saints. Nor is he commemorated in any townland or parish name of Irish origin; the civil parishes of Saint Stephen’s Within/Paróiste Stiabhna (Laistigh) (#2841) and Saint Stephen’s Without/Paróiste Stiabhna (Lasmuigh) (#2843) in Waterford City are English coinages.

The Irish name Stiabhna seen in those translated forms was a borrowing from Anglo-Normans, who introduced the cult of Saint Stephen into Ireland. Many other forms of the name are attested in Irish, e.g. Steimhín, Stiana, Steimhne, Stiofán, Steafán, Stíbhin (see D. Ó Corráin & F. Maguire, Gaelic Personal Names (1981); see also corpas.ie s.nn. Stíbhin; Steafán). Forms of the name such as Stiabhna, Stiana reflect derivation from the Old French version of the name, Estievne/Estienne (cf. Logainmneacha na hÉireann I: Contae Luimnigh, p. 53; see “Stiamna < Stémni < AN (E)steph(e)ne” in Risk, ‘French loan-words in Irish’ I (1970) §13)), while Stiofán, Steafán, et var., reflect later borrowings from English Stephen. (The Irish forms confirm that the English name on which those later borrowings were based contained /f/, which was originally a “spelling-pronunciation”; see Ox. Dict. Family Names s.n. Stephen.) The wide variation still found in Irish today is certainly not new, as evidenced by the 18th-century Dublin scribe Tadhg Ó Neachtain. He used forms of Steafán in his Irish versions of names such as Saint Stephen’s Green (‘(ag) Faithcheadh S[an] Stepháin’) and Stephen Scroop (‘an Deputi Stephon Scroop’, referring to a 14th-century deputy lieutenant of Ireland), but he used a form closer to Stiabhna in his Irish version of the surname of the early Anglo-Norman invader Robert Fitz-Stephens (‘Roibert Mc Stiophna’). Strangely, when referring in Irish to his own personal friend and fellow scribe Stephen Rice, from Co. Kerry, he used both forms (‘Stiophán (Ó) Maolcraoibhe’ and ‘Stiabhna Ríghis’)!

Stephen was very popular as a personal name and surname (Stephen(s)) among the Anglo-Normans and their descendants. However, unlike Liam (< William), Seán (< Jehan), Sinéad (< Jennet), etc., it was not widely adopted by the Gaelic Irish. Therefore, when we find Stephen(s) as a personal name or a surname in an Irish townland name there is a high chance that the eponym was of Anglo-Norman, or occasionally of New English, origin.

In Stephensland/Fearann Stíbhin (#53503) in New Ross, Co. Wexford, the name appears to be derived from a Cromwellian, Colonel Stephens, who obtained sequestered lands in the area in the 1650s (Logainmneacha na hÉireann IV: Townland Names of Co. Wexford, p.1609). This assumption is slightly complicated by the fact that the surname Stephen(s) is also attested in New Ross as early as 1367, but the placename is not attested prior to the arrival of the aforementioned soldier. We find an Irish placename with exactly the same meaning in Farranstephen/Fearann Stíbhin ‘Stephen’s land’ (#24798), Co. Kerry. Note that despite its Irish-language origin, that name almost certainly owes its creation to earlier Anglo-Norman settlement. So too Stephenstown (#54034) in South Wexford, where the placename possibly contains a personal name, whence the recommended Irish form Baile Stiofáin (Logainmneacha na hÉireann IV: Townland Names of Co. Wexford, p.1609).

In contrast, historical forms of Stephenstown and Stephenstownbeg (logainm.ie #47808) near Cashel in Co. Tipperary (e.g. ‘Ballynstaffanagh’ (1637)) definitely reflect the surname: the Irish forerunner was Baile an Steafánaigh ‘the town(land) of An Steafánach [the person surnamed Steafán < AN Stephen(s)]’, using a substantivized form of the gaelicized surname as discussed in previous notes. We find two different Irish forms in Co. Limerick: in the evidence for Stephenstown (logainm.ie #30924) anglicized forms such as ‘Ballystephen’ (1588) clearly reflect Baile Stiofáin ‘the town(land) of Stiofán’ (Logainmneacha na hÉireann I: Contae Luimnigh, p. 53). (Stiofán may represent either the surname or the personal name, as is the case with the English form Stephenstown.) The evidence for Ballysteen (#32110), on the other hand, reflects an earlier Baile Stiabhna (ibid., p.53).

Stephenstown/Baile Stiofáin in Cos. Kildare (#25955) and Dublin (#16733) appears to be of Anglo-Norman origin, whether a personal name or a surname. The same seems to be true of Stephenstown (#38628), Co. Meath, although research has yet to be completed on the townland names of that county.

With the same caveat in mind, we come to the interesting case of Rathstephen (#38269) in Co. Meath. The evidence collected thus far points to yet another Irish variant of the name Stephen. Rather unexpectedly, the local Irish form was recorded as ‘Ráth Stín’ in 1836. This form is also reflected in earlier anglicized forms such as ‘Rastyne’ (1628). Of particular note is ‘Rasteene als. Steevenrath’ (1629). The evidence appears to indicate that medial -bh- in the name Stíbhin (or possibly more likely Stiabhna, with non-palatal -bh(n)-; cf. Baile Stiabhna/Ballysteen above) had been vocalized (turned into a vowel) in the local Irish dialect. If that was the case, it may provide the answer to another problem that has long dogged placename researchers.

The official name of the Co. Westmeath town Clonmellon in the Irish language is the well-attested Ráistín (logainm.ie #1413957). The evidence demonstrates that this was the traditional name used by native speakers of Irish in the Westmeath/Meath area during the 19th century, and it was even locally remembered in the early 20th century. There is no evidence to show that any other Irish-language name was used in reference to the town. Nonetheless, the etymology of Ráistín has always been obscure. The reason why the recent research into Rathstephen (#38269), Co. Meath, is of such interest is that it implies that Ráth Stíbhin/Stiabhna, or similar, could be reduced to Ráth *Stín in the dialect of this general area. The origin of the second element no doubt having become opaque to later Irish-speaking users of the placename, development to Ráistín — by analogy with the common noun ráistín ‘shovel’ (see FGB s.v.) — would merely require a shift in stress in the pronunciation. Therefore it seems that Clonmellon/Ráistín, quite remarkably, may also represent an earlier Irish placename consisting of ráth ‘ring-fort’ + gaelicized reflex of the Anglo-Norman name Stephen.

The next time that you approach Saint Stephen’s Green and look up at the nameplate bearing the Irish form Faiche Stiabhna, spare a thought for researchers of Irish townland names who have to deal not only with Stephen but with Steafán, Stiabhna, Stíbhin, Stiofán and others – and none of them directly referring to the saint celebrated last week.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

Saint Stephen’s Day and the many borrowed faces of Stephen Clonmellon/Ráistín (logainm.ie #1413957)

Saint Stephen’s Day and the many borrowed faces of Stephen
Clonmellon/Ráistín (logainm.ie #1413957)