The o'brien Surname
o'brien Name Meaning and History
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Briain ‘descendant of
Brian’, a personal name probably based on the element
bre- ‘hill’, with the transferred sense ‘eminence’,
i.e. ‘exalted one’. See also Bryan. In Ireland there has also
been some confusion with O’Byrne (see Byrne).
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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